


Home Away From Home

by Varewulf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Isekai, magical girl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28044120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varewulf/pseuds/Varewulf
Summary: A retired magical girl dies in an accident, and is offered the chance the start over in a different world. She is given her powers back, but that world has magic of its own, different from hers. Will she be able to make a new life in this strange, new land?
Comments: 28
Kudos: 17





	1. A Different World

**Author's Note:**

> So I started work on this in the middle of November, and I guess incidentally took part in Nanowrimo 2020. I wasn't able to reach the 50k mark by the end of the month, but I got there within a month of when I started, so I count that as a moral victory if nothing else. I could have done it had I started on the 1st.
> 
> I have had an interest in isekai stories for a long time (I guess Sword Art Online and Log Horizon are the first major entries I can recall, which also got me interested in "trapped in a game" stories), but especially the past couple of years I've devoured a lot of it, which eventually resulted in me wanting to start my own story. I actually had a different idea I started earlier this year, but it turned out kinda dark, and I wanted to try something a little more wholesome this time. The world is already bad enough, and I want to imagine something a little better.
> 
> This is still an ongoing project, and I'm writing on it nearly every day. I don't know how often I'll post new chapters here, since that requires proofreading and cleaning up that takes time out of writing more new stuff. So my best offer is that I'll upload some of what I've written whenever I'm in the mood, and not busy writing more. Maybe try for at least once a week, but I am wary of making any absolute promises. December is a busy month, so I might have more spare time in 2021.  
> Also what I put on here is probably more like a second draft than what the final product would look like.
> 
> The thing about this story is that I don't really have a plot. There are no antagonists, villains, nefarious schemes, or world-ending threats (so far). It's just about a girl trying to make a new life in a new world. I have several things I want to happen, and I'm working towards those, but there is no goal I'm trying to reach, or an end I have in mind. It's all about the journey. And I love world-building, hence why it's a lot of words with not a lot happening. I'm sure you'll be able to notice a lot of my influences I've borrowed from, and tried to put my own spin on. I've plucked things from all over.  
> I'll try to remember to update tags and such as it becomes relevant.  
> With all that said, I hope you like it.

The birds were singing as a warm breeze caressed the girl's face. She gingerly opened her eyes.

_ Bright. _

It was a sunny day, but mercifully the sun was behind her, so it wasn't shining directly into her face. Her eyes still needed a minute to adjust though.

_ I don't know this place. _

Maybe it hadn't all been a dream. Maybe all the Council had told her had really happened.

* * *

"Marit."

Marit's eyes shot open. She knew this place.

"The Council?!"

In front of her were five familiar figures. The Council. They all had a shape and a voice, but no faces, and their bodies looked more like they were made of light than anything substantial. Five colours for five girls. Pink, red, blue, yellow, and green. The overseers of her magical girl life. She was blue. Or at least she used to be, a long time ago.

"Wh... why am I here?"

She felt a certain joy at seeing them again, but they had told her in plain terms that once a magical girl retired, they would never be in contact again.

The blunt voice of Red answered her: "You died."

Every thought in Marit's head ground to a halt. Surely she must have misheard.

"I... I don't..."

Green's caring voice reached out: "You don't remember?"

"No." She tried to think, but the last thing she could remember was slipping. And then she was here.  Trying to force anything else was just giving her a headache.

"Take your time." Yellow was always the one that sounded the most patient, though it didn't seem like the rest were inclined to rush her either.

It really wasn't making sense to her. "But... if I'm dead, why am I here? Are you ferrymen too?"

"No." Blue's cool voice had a sorrowful tone. "It is always a shame when someone's life is cut short. Even more so when it's one of our own. It broke our hearts. We had hoped to see you find love, start a family, thrive, and grow old. So we petitioned for you to be given a second chance."

As her personal supervisor, Blue had always been forthright with her. Assuming this wasn't some horrible dream, she felt like she could trust those words. Setting aside the Council's somewhat old-fashioned ideas about what made a fulfilling life (not to mention she had already been in love several times),  and the slightly disturbing fact that they had kept watching her, there was one major question that presented itself.

"Petitioned? Petitioned who?"

Even though they had no visible eyes, she could still feel all of them looking at her. Pink was the one who answered with their soft, yet authoritative voice:

"God."

Marit was stunned. Even though she had a different view of reality than most people due to what she had spent her teenage years doing, this was something she didn't feel prepared to process.

"God? God is real?"  _ Is this real? Maybe I am dreaming after all. _

"Yes." Green replied. "And they approved our petition."

Hope blossomed in Marit's chest. "So I'm being sent back?" Even if all of this still felt unreal, the idea that she could just go back to normal was comforting.  As if this was just a nightmare she could wake up from.

"No." Pink shattered that hope immediately. "God was very clear on this point. When someone dies in this world, that is it. It is over. Unless they can be revived by mortal hands, their soul will have to move on."

Yellow's glow brightened slightly. "Instead we are  offering you the chance to start over in a different world."

* * *

Marit pushed herself to her feet, and looked around  the immediate area . Unlike back home it looked like it was currently summer, or perhaps late spring, wherever this was. There were some scattered trees and thickets around the area, but it was mostly an open plain of vibrant grass. She couldn't spot any movement larger than an insect, aside from the wind causing tree branches and grass to rustle.

Turning to look at what she had been leaning against she found a statue on a pedestal. Sitting with her back against the rock pedestal probably explained why she felt a tad stiff. Otherwise she felt better than ever.

They had given her a bit of a reset, in that she was back in the body of a 20-year-old. Her back injury was gone. The shoulder pain she had gotten used to over the years was gone. Her vision was no longer blurry in the distance. Even feeling her mouth with her tongue she noticed the gaps in her teeth where she'd had to have some pulled were gone. Every little issue that had accumulated during her adult life appeared to be fixed. She might miss her glasses though, since she had grown fond of those. They made her feel cuter.

Otherwise things looked as they should be, as far as she could tell. Her long hair was the same colour brown she was used to, and her proportions felt correct. Actually, she was probably a bit slimmer  and fitter than she had become over the years. The power of youth? She didn't recognise the clothes she was wearing, but the blue tunic and trousers combo felt comfortable to move around in, which was probably the most important thing.

She looked up at the statue again. It was a little worn, but not disastrously so. The figure's traits were still identifiable. They were clad in a heavy robe, with slim arms cradling an orb. The world, perhaps? And on their head was either a wreath or crown of some kind. No obvious gender signifiers, but why would a god need gender? It was possible they liked having one, but this didn't feel like the right time to get theological.

_ Why would someone set this up out here? _

There were no obvious signs that anything else had been constructed or erected in the area, but she spotted a couple of items which were placed on a stone slab close to the statue.

* * *

"A different world?" Marit didn't understand.

"God oversees many worlds, not just this one," Yellow  said, as if that explained everything .

"Of course we're not sending you there empty-handed," Blue was quick to say. "We have prepared several items suited for that world, so you can hopefully lead a good life. Appropriate clothing. Provisions. Useful tools and items. Money. Hopefully we have thought of everything, but if you have any further suggestions it is not too late to say them."

"Uh..." The things you usually thought of first when going on a trip was whether you had brought your wallet, keys, and phone. The money part of the wallet was apparently covered. "ID?"

"We'll see what we can do."

Keys seemed less relevant in this scenario. "Phone?"

"That world doesn't have those."

Meaning chargers were likely not relevant either. Toiletries were usually next on the checklist. "Toothbrush? Hairbrush? Soap? Shampoo?"

"We have done what we can."

That sounded slightly ominous. They already mentioned clothes, so... "A place to stay?"

"We can't help with that. Hopefully the money will be sufficient to cover such things. It should all be in the bag of holding."

"Bag of holding?"

* * *

Marit picked up the bag. It looked like a fairly unassuming leather bag  that seemed just about big enough to fit around a head of cabbage , but when she looked inside it was a very different story.

_ Bigger on the inside, huh? _

It reminded her a bit of looking at an inventory in a VR game. Everything was stored in a neat and orderly fashion. Every item was separate, as if it was in its own bubble. According to the Council anything stored in there was essentially put in stasis. And when she had asked how much it could hold, their answer had been: " _ As much as you need. _ "

For some reason browsing through it wasn't screwing up her brain, and she could just imagine what she wanted to pluck out of it. She tried it with the hairbrush, and then with the water canteen. A sip of water felt like a good idea, even if she wasn't sure how much she had, or when she was going to find more. She hadn't spotted any rivers or ponds in her brief survey of the area.

The other item next to the bag was an ornate white rod with blue trimming.

* * *

"Also we are giving you your powers back," Red said.

"W-what?!" Another big shock. She was retired. At the time they had been very clear there was no way back from that. "But..."

"Sending you to a different world without the means to defend yourself is unacceptable," they continued. Perhaps they'd had to argue that point with God. Red could be very stubborn, but she got the feeling they all felt the same.

Pink took over. "That world already has magic, though it's different from ours. We need to warn you that your powers may not work exactly as you are used to. Our magic borrows from this world, and you will now have to borrow from that one. It might interpret things differently."

"As your powers are in part a manifestation of your soul and spirit, we do not foresee things being drastically different, but we do not know for sure." The sorrow in Blue's voice had lessened, but it wasn't completely gone. "You will be an alien entity, and it will take time for you to adjust to that world, and it to you. It is unlikely you will be at full power when you first arrive, but it should grow as you fit in better. So please be careful."

_ This is a lot to take in. _ Marit's thoughts were having a hard time settling. "Do I have to go?"

Green's compassion enveloped her like a warm hug. "Of course not. If you do not want this, you are free to move on. At some point, in some place, your soul will be reborn."

"However." Yellow made sure to have her attention before continuing. "Though your soul will be reborn, it will not truly be you. Everything that makes you  _ you _ ; your memories, experiences, and personality; will be gone. They will be an entirely new person. This is the only chance we can offer you to continue being  _ you _ for a while longer." 

"I see..."

So either way her current life was over. The only question that remained was whether she wanted it to be The End, or to attempt starting over. It dawned on her that this was like one of those isekai stories she had gotten so into. She had even playfully dreamed of it happening to her, but it had never been something she had considered seriously. Nothing she had thought was within the realm of possibility. Who would? But now that she was faced with it, she had to admit she didn't feel ready for everything to be over.

"Alright. I'll go."

The mood in the entire room seemed to lift.

"Good luck."

* * *

The rod felt very familiar in her hand.  She hadn’t really expected that after so many years. There was one test she wanted to do immediately. Throwing it away. She considered yeeting it as far as she could, but then thought that if this didn't work, she'd have to walk further to pick it back up. So she aimed it at an open patch of grass a few metres away, and tossed it in that direction. Once it had landed she concentrated on sending a quick command, and the rod flew right back to her hand, much faster than she had thrown it away.  It made a satisfying slapping noise against her palm.

_ Good, that still works. _

That was a relief. So she didn't have to worry about losing it, or it being taken from her. At least she hoped there was nothing strong enough to hold on to her rod even if she called for it. She decided to try again, and threw it as hard as she could. Before it landed she sent the command again. It curved through the air like a boomerang, and swiftly found its way back to her hand. 

Next she had to see if she could actually transform. She raised her wand, then paused.

_ What was it I used to say again? _

Technically she didn't need a transformation phrase or anything, but it helped her visualise it happening. 

"Uh... waves of blue, steer me true!"

She could feel the magic rush from the rod into her heart, which caused a reaction that spread out to her entire body. Her regular outfit was shifted aside as ribbons of magic wrapped around her limbs, torso, and waist to form solid cloth. While it felt a little different from how she remembered, as if there was a slightly different flavour to it, she still came out of it looking the way she was used to. As far as she could tell, at least. Of all the things she had seen in the bag of holding, a mirror hadn't been one of them.

Her hair had grown longer  so it reached her waist , and turned a vibrant blue. Her top was essentially a white shirt with a blue vest, and long white sleeves that ended in blue gloves. Instead of trousers she now wore a white skirt, and blue stockings  that ran all the way to her thighs. The underskirt was basically like frilly shorts, so  there would be no panty-peeping. And her boots were also a mix of blue and white that ran halfway up her calves. 

Finally the most important part. She gripped the rod a little tighter, and a blade of blue energy shot out, forming a single-edged sword, not unlike a katana. It hadn't looked quite that way in her active days, but in her adult life she had gotten very into anime and manga on top of the video games and books she was already interested in. So her tastes might have shifted a little.

With a thought she cycled through several weapon shapes. For instance a spear, an axe, a mace, and a whip. She used to be the weapons expert on the team, and could use a wide variety, though admittedly the sword, the whip, and the rifle were her most common variants. Yet for some reason when she tried to envision a rifle here, it became a bow instead. Was that the first instance of this world's magic disagreeing with her?  Or was she that out of practice?

She had kept up some weapons practice into her adult life, but it had been a while since she'd had fencing lessons, or gone to the shooting range. Yet now that she was transformed again, the weapons had a natural feel in her hands just like she remembered. So even though she had never used a bow before,  she might still make it work in this form.

She switched back to the sword, and did a few practice swings. Even though it had been a while, it felt surprisingly familiar.  It actually made her a little uneasy how natural it felt, even after so long. Maybe she should just trust the magic.  She swapped to the bow, and loosed several arrows against a nearby tree. They all hit in an acceptable grouping near where she aimed, though it definitely felt very different to a rifle. She had to assume that the transformation was helping her aim, but she still wanted to get more used to it. Now was not the time though. She should get moving soon. For a final test she switched to the whip, swung it so it looped around the tree trunk a few times, and pulled it tight. A crushing noise ensued as bark and splinters flew in all directions, and nearby birds took to the sky.

"Ack!"

The surprise caused her to yelp out loud. That wasn't how it had worked back home. A magical girl's weapons should only be able to harm the forces of evil, and she highly doubted the tree was evil. She had expected it to just tighten harmlessly around the trunk.

"Uh..."  _ Can I fix this? _

The weapon dematerialised as she ran over to check the trunk. It had a couple of deep grooves where the whip had really dug into it. Sure it was just a tree, but she still felt bad about it. If she had meant to do it that would be one thing, but this was an unexpected accident. She hadn't intended to test whether her spells worked yet, but healing was something the entire team had been able to do. Marit hadn't been the best at it, but she hadn't been terrible either.

She placed her hands on the trunk, closed her eyes, and tried to visualise the tree being restored to its former self. Magic poured out through her arms, and she could hear the wood groaning. When she opened her eyes the shape of the tree had been restored, though she could tell that the bark over where the wound had been had a lighter colour than  that which surrounded it .  Heidi would have probably done better.

_ Ah well, hopefully that's good enough. I should keep in mind that my weapons might be able to harm innocent things, and possibly people, in this world. _

That would be a bad thing to discover the hard way, so maybe this test had been a good thing after all.

With that out of the way, she released the transformation, and returned to her usual self. The transformation line had felt very embarrassing to say at her age, so maybe she should  practice transforming without it. A sudden sense of fatigue set in. Had she used too much energy? They had warned her that she wouldn't be at full power at first.

_ I used to be able to last much longer, pretty much indefinitely, but I guess I need to be careful here. _

She attached the rod to her belt, and went to look in the bag of holding again. Some food would be nice, along with more water, and then she really should get going. She wasn't sure where, but she should try to find a town, or village, or farm, or at the very least a road that could lead to any one of those.

She took out the water canteen again, and noticed it was actually from a stack of five. For a moment she wanted to question how that worked, but decided it wasn't worth the brainpower. At least she had more water than she had thought. There were five lunch boxes too, one for each colour of council member. Had they all packed her individual lunches? She didn't immediately spot any other food.

Curiosity compelled her to retrieve the blue one first. Inside she found bread. It was stuffed full of bread. Upon closer inspection there was also some cheese in between the bread. Was this supposed to be sandwiches? The general idea was there, even if the finer details were off.  Had they not considered a varied diet? Maybe the other boxes were better, but her instinct was that she needed to find somewhere with proper meals soon. At least it tasted good.

As she put the food and water back, she had a look at the money. 50 000 gold coins, and 50 000 silver coins. She did not recognise the designs on either side of either coin. Was that a lot? It felt like a lot, but she had no idea about the value of money in this world. Finding some source of income was probably  a good idea either way.

Before closing the bag she noticed a book. She pulled it out. It said " _ To Marit _ " on the front, so she flipped it open.

" _ Dear Marit. In here we have made notes about everything we told you, in case you forget. We realise it is a lot, but we might not be able to contact you directly ever again. Since this was not written by you, you are the only one in that world able to read it. Our best wishes go with you. Sincerely, the Council. _ "

They had mentioned that she would have the ability to understand and be understood by the people of this world, both in spoken and written forms. Hopefully that was true, or things could get awkward fast.

_ Geez, they're being so fussy. You'd think they were my parents. _

A sudden icy feeling  formed in Marit's chest, and spread outwards until it made it hard to breathe.

_ My parents... _

With how sudden the end had been, everything the Council had had to tell her, and her first impressions of this new world, reality hadn't had time to fully sink in yet.

_ I'm dead back home. I'll never see my parents again. _

They hadn't always been on the best of terms, but things had been improving in recent years. The thought that she had died before them, the grief they must be feeling, it was crushing. There had been no chance to say goodbye. She didn't even have a picture to remember them by.

Her eyes started to sting as her throat felt tight.

And not just them. Her siblings. Nieces and nephews. The old team. Friends, online and offline. What if some of them never even learned of her death?  She would just disappear without them knowing why. She had at times considered setting up some plan for letting everyone know in case the worst should happen, simply because she was prone to worrying about all sorts of things, but she had never actually done it. Now it was too late.

The sobbing wouldn't stop. It was like everything was hitting her all at once. It hurt so much. Just one girl, all alone, curled up by the statue of a god she didn't know. 

* * *

Daylight was almost gone. She must have cried herself to sleep at some point. She knew she needed to get going, but she felt awful, and it was nearly dark anyway. She'd have to make camp here. Sure it was possible to see quite far at night just by the light of the stars and the moon when there was no light pollution around, but she didn't want to entrust her fate to something like that. She didn't even know what stars or moons this sky might hold. The lack of camping equipment was an issue though.

Her eyes still stung, and her throat was raw, so she didn't have much of an appetite. But she at least got some more water while seeing if there was something of use in the bag. There was a blanket, which thankfully was both thick and soft. Since it was summer it might not get that cold at night, but she didn't want to risk it. Unfortunately she couldn't find any light sources, or ways to make a fire.

While she hadn't seen any animals bigger than a sparrow, this was a world of magic, and she was quite familiar with fantasy stories both through reading and watching. The possibility of monsters was on the forefront of her mind. Even regular wild animals could be bad if they caught her while asleep. 

She dragged herself over to the tree she had previously wounded. It would probably be better to sleep against than the stone. Maybe sleeping  _ in _ the tree was a safer option, but she wasn't sure she could make herself comfortable up in the branches, or guarantee that she wouldn't fall down.

There was really only one option that seemed reasonable, even though she felt utterly exhausted.

"Waves of- * _ cough cough _ *" Her throat was really not happy about her speaking at the moment. "-blue. Steer me * _ cough _ * true."

She felt a moment of elation as the magic wrapped around her once again, but even in her transformed state she couldn't ignore how tired she felt. She'd have to be quick. Summoning what power she had left, she tried to imagine a flame as best she could. One that could keep wild beasts and monsters away while she slept.

A blue flame formed in the air in front of her. Of course it was blue. There was no particular heat coming off of it, it seemed to just be light shaped like a flame. She guided it to a location by the tree where it could just float in the air, and hopefully keep her safe. While she had no idea whether it would stay there after she stopped being transformed, she could only follow the advice of the Council: " _ Trust in the magic. _ " She released the transformation, and the flame stayed. Though it was impossible  to say how long it would remain . All she was able to do was curl up under the blanket before exhaustion claimed her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter doesn't really start us off in the happiest place, but there are things I figured I needed to get out of the way before I (and Marit) move forward.


	2. Setting Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit decides on a way to go, and has an unexpected encounter.

The next morning she woke up unsavaged, though the magical flame was gone. At least it seemed to have done its job.  The sun was already above the horizon, so she must have slept a long time. Or perhaps the days were shorter in this world than back home. She still didn't have much of an appetite, but she managed to force down some breakfast. More bread and cheese. In her mind it was best to finish one box before opening another, even if she kinda wanted something different.

She felt a bit better. The grief of never seeing anyone she knew ever again had hardly evaporated, and it felt like there was a heavy lump in her chest, but the worst shock had probably, hopefully, worn off. So she tried to focus on how the Council had probably worked hard to give her this chance, and she couldn't just throw that away immediately. She needed to find somewhere with food and shelter, and do her best to process her feelings along the way. When she had a bed to sleep in, she could cry into the pillow all she needed.

_ But which way do I go? _

Clearly someone had put up this statue at some point, but there was no evidence that anyone had been here in a long time. No trail to follow. And the area was so flat that there weren't any substantial hills to climb to get a good view. She could gamble on going the way she had been facing when she woke up, but she wasn't sure if she could trust it being that easy. Unfortunately the notebook didn't say anything about where to go either. It was possible the Council didn't have any more of an idea than she did, and even if they had directions like north, west, south, or east to give her, it wasn't like she had a compass. There was one option.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

She couldn't stop herself from squealing as her stomach tickled intensely.

_ So far up. I'm really not used to this. It's been too long. Oh god. Why did I think this was a good idea? Oh god why? _

The plan to use her magical girl power to leap high into the air so she could actually get a good view of her surroundings had already hit a snag as she was too preoccupied with panicking to actually look around. The ground suddenly rushing back up to meet her wasn't helping things, but as if on instinct she landed with the grace of a cat. Not even making an imprint on the ground.

_ Okay. Okay. I'm alive. I'm fine. That wasn't so bad. I can do this. _

She looked up into the sky again. None of the team had been able to fly, as that hadn't been part of their magical girl powerset, but they would leap around a lot. They didn't have as much fear at that age, which was probably one of the reasons why magical girls tended to be young. Had to get them before they realised how dangerous what they were doing actually was.

Birgitte and Heidi had been able to float in the air for a while. Marit, Nina, and Lena hadn't really been able to do the same. You got a bit of hang time at the apex of your jump while gravity tried to work out what to do with you, but then it quickly went back down. Nina had always loved doing dive attacks that way.

She could feel herself getting a little choked up again, so she forced the memories out of the way with another jump. That gave her something entirely different to focus on.

She was able to look around a little that time, but couldn't spot anything, so she went up yet again. The tickling in her stomach just wouldn't stop, and it was very distracting.

Finally something caught her eye in the distance. A river? That could be a start. People liked building things near rivers. Fresh water was pretty important to life.

She set down, released the transformation, made sure both bag and rod were firmly affixed to her belt, and set out.

_ I hope it's not too far. It was kinda hard to tell from up there. _

* * *

As she reached the river, she sat down on a rock to catch her breath. She wasn't sure how long it had taken, since she didn't have a watch or any other way to tell time. She certainly wasn't capable of telling time by the position of the sun in the sky. Hopefully it was still before noon. Surely it couldn't have taken several hours to get there.

It was a nice river. Not too wide, nor did it look that deep. At her best guess it was maybe five metres across. The water sparkled lazily in the sun. She could probably cross it if she wanted, but there was currently no reason to. 

She was used to taking walks, but usually not for very long. Typically about an hour, and then she would often need a shower when she got home. Building up her stamina a bit more was probably not a bad idea.

She pulled the water canteen out of the bag again, and drained the last of it. She wondered if it was safe to fill it in this river. It certainly didn't seem poisoned or polluted, but Marit's wilderness skills were practically nonexistent. She didn’t trust herself to be able to tell, but she still had four more canteens, so she put the empty one back in the bag for now. This time it didn't go back in the stack, but got its own separate spot. 

_ That makes sense. _

There still hadn't been much in the way of animals that she had seen. Mostly birds. But she knew enough to know that wild animals were pretty good at avoiding and hiding from people. There had been something at the opposite side of the river as she arrived, but it had bolted into the grass so fast that she hadn't gotten a good look at it. Probably a fox, or ferret, or cat maybe.

_ Does this world have cats? I hope so. _

Most fantasy worlds in stories had animals identical or close to the ones on Earth, but that might just be because it was easier to write that way. Though if both worlds were overseen by the same God, then maybe it made sense that the animals would be much the same. She would probably find out soon enough. What remained to be seen was if this was the kind of world that also had monsters. Aside from what the Council had told her, there wasn't really any concrete evidence so far that it was actually a fantasy world. It was more that when they told her it had magic she had assumed as much. So far things were just peaceful and lush.

_ Now do I follow this river upstream, or down? _

After some quick deliberation she decided on going up, so she got back on her feet, and kept walking. If she was transformed she could have probably walked to the ends of the world and barely gotten tired, but as it stood she didn't know how long she was capable of staying transformed. She didn't want to use up all her power, and then have nothing left if anything was to attack her, but it sucked being so out of breath. She definitely needed stamina training. Or to get some better transportation. Though in a fantasy world that would probably mean a horse or some equivalent mount, and the last time she had ridden a horse she had maybe been ten years old. It might be best to shelve that idea for the moment. At least they had given her really comfy boots.

_ Maybe I should learn how to use a regular sword just in case I run out of magical energy at the wrong time... _

The scenery didn’t look too different from areas largely untouched by humans back home. Rocks were rocks. Grass was grass. Trees were trees. In fact she was pretty certain she had seen regular old birch and ash trees, but it had been a while since nature science class so she could be wrong. And the river behaved like a river should, as far as she could tell. 

After walking for a while longer it turned out luck was on her side, and she actually found a road where the river started to go into a forest. It wasn’t much of a road by modern standards, but she had probably seen worse in remote locations. Not something that provided a smooth ride for anything with wheels. More interesting was the bridge across the river, which was actually made of stone. Seemed like someone had put real effort into it.

_ Is this an important road, then? Or is this just standard procedure? _

Time for another break. Rocks weren’t exactly the most comfortable seats in the world, but taking the weight off of her legs was very welcome regardless. She still had no idea how much time had passed. Keeping track of time had never been one of her strong points, even with a clock at her disposal. The sun was still high in the sky, that was as much as she could tell.

Scanning the length of the road in both directions didn’t reveal much of interest besides the bridge, and the forest. Across the bridge the road went into the woods, and on this side it seemed like the open plain continued for a while longer.

_ So… which way? _

Roads were made to connect places, so logically there should be a destination in either direction, but there were no signs or anything to tell her which way was shorter. It was definitely more tempting to go in the open direction than into the forest. There were a lot more places for things to hide in the woods. And she absolutely did not want to be in there when it got dark. It looked to be many hours away from sunset, but she had no indication how large the forest was. She might be able to find out if she did the jumping strat from earlier.

Before anything else she figured she should probably refill on water. The hike so far had made her quite thirsty, and she was well into her second canteen. While she wouldn’t call it scorching, the sun was bearing down relentlessly, and she didn’t want to suffer a heat stroke or dehydration out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe she should have asked the Council to give her some sunscreen, or a parasol. To be safe she decided to go upstream of the bridge to refill. It probably didn’t make a difference, but in case there was any sort of pollution from the bridge she’d like to avoid it.

The river looked a little faster up close, but she tried to put any thoughts of the current carrying her away out of mind. The water felt refreshing against her hand as she held the canteens under it. It was cool, but not cold. You could probably wash yourself in this if you had to.

_ I’d love a shower, but finding a bath is probably more likely. _

She hadn’t lived anywhere with a bathtub for many years, but she’d welcome one right now. At the very least she splashed some water on her face after putting the canteens back in the bag. She probably didn’t look great after last night’s sobbing, so she could at least try to rub some of that away.

As she got back up to the road she could hear something coming from the woods on her side of the river. An animal? Whatever it was, it was getting louder, which probably meant it was getting closer. Before she could speculate further, something burst out from between the trees, startling her enough to fall over onto her butt.

What appeared to be a large person was running towards her. They were holding an axe in one hand, and as they spotted her, they raised the axe and let out a shout, almost like a roar. For a moment she was too shocked to react, but then old instincts kicked in, and her hand went for the rod at her hip. All she needed was a second.

Then all of a sudden the figure’s roar stopped, and it looked like they stumbled over their own feet before crashing into the ground a few metres away from her. She stared for a moment longer, her hand frozen, but there was no further movement. The reason became clear as she noticed the arrow sticking out from the back of the figure’s head.

Marit quickly scrambled to her feet, still wondering if she should transform. She didn’t know where the arrow had come from, or if another was coming for her next. The closest cover was the railing of the bridge, but could she make it there in time, or was it better to trigger the transformation right away?

All of a sudden she heard a shout from the woods: “Did ya get him?”

“I think so! He shut up, at least!” Someone shouted in response.

Marit managed to reach the bridge just in time to see another person come out from between the trees, followed by yet another. From her position the first person looked like a woman holding a sword, and behind her looked to be a man holding a bow. They were both wearing what she would describe as ‘fantasy armour’: An assortment of leather and metal that looked functional, though not flattering.

“Nice shot,” the woman said.

“Thanks. I aimed for the noise.”

They said something else Marit couldn’t quite hear, before the woman followed up with: “But why would he suddenly start shout- wait.” Her arm shot up in front of her companion. “Who’s there?!”

Marit realised she had been spotted as the man aimed his bow in her direction. She quickly ducked behind the railing as much as she could.

“Don’t shoot!” She shouted back at them.

“Who are ya?” The woman demanded.

A very good question. What could she possibly say that wouldn’t seem suspicious? “I’m… a traveller!” That was basically the truth.

“Oh.” There was a moment’s silence. “Well, ya can come out now.”

Marit peeked around the corner again, and saw the bow was lowered, though it still looked ready to go back up at a moment’s notice. She raised her hands before getting up just in case, and walked out onto the dirt road again. 

The pair visibly relaxed at the sight of her. “No need for that,” the woman said, signalling that Marit could put her hands down.

_ Do I look that non-threatening? _

Maybe that was for the best. She lowered her hands as the woman walked closer, and noticed there was a buckler strapped to her left hand.

She was a fellow brunette, though her hair was cut short, giving her a messy, yet charming look. While not bulky, her body was clearly muscular, which probably gave her a decent amount of speed, and added power to her sword swings. And her brown eyes were currently giving the stranger in front of her an inquisitive look.

“Are ya okay, Miss… elf?”

“Elf?” Marit blinked. “No, I’m human,” was all she could think to respond with. At least she thought she was. Maybe she had been made into a different race when she crossed over? She still hadn’t been able to see her reflection, after all. The river moved too rapidly to be used for that.

“But ye’re so tall…”

“Eh? Oh…” It was true that she was in the taller bracket among women, even where she was from. At 182 centimetres she stood above quite a lot of men too. She was even taller than her own father, so she wasn’t sure where she had gotten those genes.

The woman tilted her head to the side. “Ya don’t seem to have the ears for it, so... sorry, Miss human. Are ya okay?”

“Yeah, I…” Well, that was a lie. But she didn’t feel in the mood to explain why she wasn’t okay. She glanced over towards the body as the man was checking on it. Thankfully being a fisherman’s daughter had accustomed her to seeing blood, but seeing a corpse was a different matter. And now that she could see it with a calmer eye, she realised it didn’t look human. The broad physique and bulky head were already odd, but the tusks were what really gave it away. Not to mention the greenish tint to the brown skin wasn’t something she had seen on dark-skinned humans before. “Is that… a monster?”

“Huh?” The woman looked behind her. “No, it’s just a bandit.”

“A bandit?”

“Yeah.” She looked back at Marit. “We’re on a quest to hunt down a group of orc bandits in this area. That should have been the last one.”

_ Orc, huh? Wait... _ “A quest?” The gears churned in Marit’s head. “So… you’re adventurers?” 

“That’s right! Did the equipment give it away?” The woman grinned wide.

“Sorry.” Marit felt sheepish. “I’m new to this... area.”

“Oh? Where are ya from?”

“Um… far, far away.”

“And ya travelled here all on yer own?”

Marit nodded.

“Huh. Ya must be tougher than ya look.”

“Thanks?” Marit wasn’t sure if that was a compliment.

“So where-”

“Robyn! Dunn! Did you get him?!”

They were interrupted by more shouting from the woods as another two figures stepped out from between the trees. One looked like a woman holding a staff, wearing very mage-like attire, and the other like a bulky man with a large shield on his back, and a large scabbard at his hip.

“Yup.” The archer answered them. “You finished the clean-up?”

“No problem.” The shield guy gave them a thumbs up. “Hm? Who’s this?”

The woman turned around, and started walking towards the others. Marit decided she might as well follow. “Oh, this is Miss… uh…” She glanced over her shoulder again. “I forgot to ask yer name.”

“It’s Marit.”

“Gotcha. I’m Robyn. Nice to meet ya.” Which probably meant the archer was Dunn.

“Um, likewise.” They seemed like friendly people, if you overlooked how they had just murdered someone right in front of her eyes.

Robyn turned back to her fellows as they all grouped up. “This is Miss Marit. She’s a traveller.”

_ Miss? Isn’t that a bit formal? _

The presumed mage looked up at her. “An elf?”

“Nah, she’s human.” Robyn corrected her before Marit had the chance to say anything.

“But-”

“Doesn’t have the ears for it, see?”

“Oh.”

Now that they were all close, Marit noticed she was the tallest person of all of them. Perhaps it made sense they wouldn’t immediately think she was a regular human. Either humans were shorter on average here than back home, or she had been made even taller when she crossed over. Marit the Giant.

“Sorry about that. I’m Eri,” the short woman said.  Her red hair was in a nice, cute braid. If undone the length would probably be about the middle of her back similar to Marit’s. And her curious green eyes were gazing up at the apparently elf-like human. She was almost painfully cute. While you couldn’t call her muscular, what you could see of her body still seemed pretty fit. Even spellcasters had to walk around just like anyone else, and presumably having to hit someone with a stick was occasionally necessary.

“Dunn.” The archer confirmed as he nodded at her.  Tall, with short, blonde hair, brown eyes, and a sharp look to his thin, toned appearance. He certainly looked the part of the fantasy archer. Maybe ranger was a more correct term. The word that came to mind was ‘lithe’.

“And I’m Jonas.”  Short, bushy dark hair, and blue eyes on a round, friendly face. He was easily the widest person present, though not quite as much as the ex-orc. With muscles like that it didn’t seem like he would have any problem holding that shield and fighting at the same time.

Some names were definitely more familiar to her than others. Was this some equivalent to fantasy Europe, then? “Nice to meet you all.”  If you were to rank the heights, you’d have Eri at the bottom, at least half a head below Robyn, who was just a little short of Jonas. Dunn looked like he had nearly half a head on Jonas, but still wasn’t at Marit’s level.

“So where are ya headed, Miss Marit?” Robyn asked.

“I’m…” Another very good question. “I don’t know. I am kinda lost.” She glanced towards the road again. “I was trying to decide which way to go when… uh… when that bandit showed up. Um… thank you for saving me.” 

“Trying to decide?” Jonas sounded puzzled. “Then where did you come from?”

“Somewhere far, far away.”

“No, I mean… how did you get here? If you weren’t travelling down the road?”

“Ah. Right.” A reasonable question. “I was following the river.”

“The river?” Robyn patted her on the back. “I guess ya were really lost, then.”

“Why don’t you come back with us?” Eri offered.

“Yeah, we’d feel bad leaving you behind,” Jonas agreed.

“Um, sure, yes.” It was literally the best option Marit had at the moment. If they intended to rob her or anything, they could have just done that right here. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get going, then. Durkandel is just on the other side of the forest. We should be there by evening.”

“Oh.” Marit looked at the foreboding forest, which probably wasn’t as foreboding as she imagined if it was that close to a town. “I was considering going the other way before you came along.”

Dunn chuckled. “You would have been walking for a long time then.”

“Yeah, Hargal village is about half a day away on horseback. I would not want to walk the whole way.”

Marit felt very lucky someone had come along. The others were already securing their gear for the walk, but she was still quite aware of the presence of a certain object.

“Um… what about… that?” She pointed at the corpse of the orc bandit when they gave her a questioning look.

Dunn shrugged. “Not really our job to deal with the bodies. We’ve secured the proof we need of their defeat, and anything valuable they carried.”

“And we’re not really the types to consider using people bits as materials,” Robyn added. “We could ask the soldiers in town to come clean up, but I doubt they’d be happy about it. Best to leave it to the animals.”

_ Circle of life kinda thing? _ Marit didn’t say it out loud. It wasn’t like she had any great desire to touch it either.

“It is awfully close to the road though,” Eri pointed out. 

“True…” Jonas stroked the stubble on his chin. “Might be a good idea to drag it over to the woods at least.”

“Ya have a point.” Robyn stretched her arms. “One leg each, Jonas?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not thought of any last names for these characters, and probably won't bother. My naming skills aren't great, so I'm trying to keep it to a minimum. :P  
> Things are finally getting going, and with a few more chapters I will have probably established the sort of tone I'm going for. Though I guess that's ultimately up to the readers to decide.


	3. Welcome To Durkandel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit and the adventurers trek through the forest, and reach Durkandel city.

The forest didn’t seem as oppressive from the inside. The leaves weren’t too dense, so light still shone down through the canopy. The road wasn’t overgrown at all either. Maybe there had been some effort to clear the area closest to it, though there weren’t any stumps or other immediate evidence of it. There were plenty of noises from the various forest creatures all around them, but nothing came out to challenge them. Was that because of the size of their group, or was there simply nothing in there that wanted to approach people?

Marit kept her questions to herself, as she didn’t want to pester them right now. While they seemed to be walking and chatting casually, she didn’t get the sense their guard was down. They might be walking as a group, but she noted that Dunn was slightly in front, and Robyn slightly behind, with Jonas and Eri in the middle, as if they were in a formation. Marit trailed a little behind all of them, not sure how to fit in, or if she really wanted to.

_ They seem like a good team. Well-balanced. _ It made her think of her own.

Nina was their leader, the pink magical girl. She didn’t use any weapons besides her fists and feet, which she could charge up with magical energy for extra impact.

Lena was red, and wielded a two-handed sword larger than herself that she blocked with as effortlessly as she swung it around. She liked to set the blade on fire against the really tough enemies.

Together with Marit the three of them basically formed the frontline of the team, though Marit could basically fight at any distance if needed. She just needed to conjure the appropriate weapon.

Birgitte was yellow, and wielded a heavy spear, but her main focus was casting spells. The spear was more of a defensive option. She could also deploy shields to the other members to block incoming attacks.

Heidi was green, and focused on support magic, like healing and strengthening the others. Though she wasn’t shy about attacking either. She had a small shield on each wrist, similar to Robyn’s buckler, to deflect attacks, and used throwing weapons to lock enemies down. She could attach spells to them as well.

All of them could do more or less the same magical girl things, but they all had certain things they were better at than the others, and they found that their teamwork was a lot better when everyone was assigned a role. So for instance Marit was still capable of casting attack and support spells, and Heidi could still land a hefty kick if she needed to.

She had of course kept in touch with all of them after they retired, and they would meet up at least once a year just to catch up (even if they kept in frequent written contact as well). Birgitte actually lived in the same city. The two of them had tried dating for a while, since it wasn’t like they knew a lot of other queer girls nearby, but called it off after about half a year. They worked better as just friends.

_ I wonder how they are all doing now? How are they handling my death? I miss them already… _

“Doing alright, Miss Marit?”

“Huh?” While she had been preoccupied with her own thoughts, Robyn had fallen back to walk beside her. “Um, yes. I mean… sorry. I’m not used to walking this much.” Her legs had been protesting for a while. Once they reached this Durkandel place she just wanted to find a bed, and not move for a day or two. Well, a bath would also be nice.

“Oh?” They walked in silence for a minute. “I was wondering. If yer home is so far away, how did ya end up here?”

“I-” Marit probably should have seen that question coming, but it still caught her off guard. “That-” What could she even answer? “There was an accident, and… I don’t really want to talk about it…” 

“Gotcha.” Robyn gave her an understanding nod. She looked like she had more questions, but kept them to herself. “Hey, Jonas! Can we take a break?”

“Hm?” Jonas looked over his shoulder. “Sure. We’re probably about halfway.”

Marit had entirely given up on trying to keep track of time or distance, she was just putting one foot in front of the other, so she didn’t really know if they’d been walking for a while, or not very long.

They found a place to sit down, and the adventurers all took out waterskins along with something easy to eat. Seemed like they also had bags of holding.

_ I wonder how common they are? At least it won’t seem weird that I take something out. _

She fished one of the canteens out of her bag, but before she could even pop it open she heard:

“What’s that?” Eri was giving her a curious look.

“Uh…” Marit looked down, then back up. “A water canteen.”

“Canteen?” Apparently Jonas’s curiosity had also been piqued. “Is that like a flask?”

“I guess so.” She hadn’t really thought about it. So much for not seeming weird.

“Can I see?” Seemed like the mage was exceedingly curious.

Marit suppressed a sigh. “Sure.” She handed it over to Eri, then took out another one for herself.

“It’s metal,” she said with a tone of wonder. “And cold.” She shook it gently, and heard the squelching of water from inside. “How do you open it?” She tugged at the top, which refused to budge.

“You twist the top off. Like this.” Marit demonstrated on the one she was holding, before taking a sip. It was still nice and cool. You wouldn’t think it had been sitting in a bag for a day and a half. That was probably what they had meant about the items going into stasis. It was possible it was the one she had filled in the river earlier, but she had no way to make sure. Since she wasn’t sure if the stasis thing was how they usually worked or not, she didn’t want to bring that up.

“Twist? Oh!” Eri looked surprised when the top moved, and came off. Thankfully it was the kind where the top was attached to the neck with a little chain, so it didn’t drop to the ground.

“Are these common where you are from?” Jonas asked.

“I’m not sure if I’d call them common… but they’re useful to take on trips.” Though she dearly wished the Council had given her something less conspicuous to carry her water in, no matter how useful they were. At least it wasn’t plastic, since she had no idea how to try to explain that.

“Can I buy this one from you?” Eri seemed enchanted by it. Surely it wasn’t  _ that  _ amazing.

Even so… “I only have a few, so I would rather not.” If she ever found herself dehydrated from missing one canteen she would surely regret it.

“I understand…” Eri handed the canteen back, though she looked deeply disappointed.

“Ugh…” This girl was dangerously cute, and it made Marit feel a little bad. “I… I’ll think about it.” She could probably find something else to carry water in if need be.

“Really?”

“No promises.”

“Okay!”

_ I’m going to skip taking out any of my lunchboxes. If they think canteens are weird, I can’t imagine what they’d think of these. I can wait until I’m somewhere private. I probably won’t starve before then. _

“May I ask another question?”

Marit looked at Jonas. “Sure, assuming I can answer.”

“What is that item on your belt? I haven’t seen anything like it.”

She realised immediately what he was referring to. The rod. According to the notebook the Council had left her there was no need to hide that she was a magical girl in this world. They didn’t offer any further explanation, so whether it meant that magical girls were a known thing here, or that it wouldn’t seem that strange in a world full of different kinds of magic she did not know. However she didn’t feel like explaining, and certainly not demonstrating, right then and there.

“It’s for self-defence.”

Jonas raised an eyebrow. “It’s a weapon?”

“Of a sort. Maybe I’ll show you how it works some day.” She smiled.

“I see. Don’t worry, I do not intend to pry into your secrets.”

“I appreciate that.” She truly did.

* * *

They got back to walking. Marit felt more comfortable walking in the group now, though she stuck in the back with Robyn. Since the ice was broken, she decided she might as well ask some questions, starting with the elf thing.

She was told that elves were quite rare in that part of the world, as most of them preferred to stay close to their homelands. Travelling elves weren’t entirely unheard of, so they would occasionally pop up, but the last time Robyn had seen one was years ago. Eri confessed she had never seen one in person before, she had only heard and read about them.

Durkandel and the surrounding land was primarily human territory, though a fair number of dwarves lived there too. According to the group dwarves basically went wherever they thought they could find work, and generally got on really well with humans. Though Jonas said he wouldn’t have been surprised to find dwarves in an orcen city either, since they seemed able to get along with anyone.

As for the orcs there was a fair amount of tension between them and humans due to a history of hostility and warfare, so you would basically never see them in a human city unless they were captured bandits or raiders, and it was probably the same for them with regards to humans. There were neutral trading posts set up in various locations that welcomed all races, so you could still find orc goods in human cities if you knew the right merchants. Steps were being taken to improve diplomatic relations between the races, but such things were far above what common folk and adventurers worried about.

Marit became more fascinated with each thing they told her, and wanted to keep probing about what other races were around, but she knew it would open her up to counter-questions about why she didn’t know more, and what things were like where she came from. It was best to rein in her curiosity for the time being. 

Being new to the area let her get away with asking about the state of things around here, but if she ventured too far into general world knowledge it might make her look suspicious. Probably better to look for a library or bookstore in town, and do some reading on the basics.

Chatting away made the time pass a lot faster, so before she knew it they were out of the forest.

“Here we are. Ya see it?”

There was a downhill slope from the woods towards the city, so Marit could basically see all of it even if it was still several hundred metres away. It was clear it had been built in layers, with three sets of walls dividing up the city. The inner ring had to be where it had all started. Even at a distance she could make out a fortress right smack in the middle. That had probably been a stronghold before it grew into a city. The lord of the place was Marquis Danyr Starlein. While she wasn’t an expert on the hierarchy of nobles, she thought that was one of the higher-up ones.

_ Do they still live in the fortress, or have they built a mansion? I can’t tell from here. _

The other two walls enclosed much larger areas. Presumably they would add another ring whenever enough buildings were outside the walls to warrant it. Though the only evidence she had for that theory was that there were a handful of buildings outside the outermost wall, only surrounded by fences, or in a few cases smaller walls. It was possible they’d had strict and detailed city planning across the years, but it didn’t exactly look like it. It had to be pretty peaceful in the region for people to dare set up homes right outside a city’s walls. If it got sieged they’d be in the worst possible position. 

There was a river that ran right through the city, which was probably a big reason why it had sprung up in the first place. It was hard to trace its path through the place at this angle, and she wondered if it met up with the river on the other side of the forest at some point, but it wasn’t exactly a pressing concern. She’d probably be staying here for a while, and have plenty of time to find out, since she didn’t have anywhere else to go. Or really any reason to go unless she desperately wanted to explore.

_ I’d want some better means of transportation first. I might have to learn how to ride a horse. _

It wasn’t the most alluring thought, but she figured she was unlikely to find anything motorised here. She had ridden a horse a few times when she was like 10 years old. Maybe younger. And even if she found something like a bicycle it would be hell to ride on a road such as this. If she could use her magical girl form freely without worrying she’d run out of energy, she could essentially run and leap wherever she wanted, but that didn’t seem to be an option. Yet. If the Council had spoken correctly, her powers would grow the longer she stayed in this world. The issue was simply how long it would take.

_ And do I simply need time, or do I also need practice? _

They approached the gate. There were another two roads, one on each side, converging on the one they were walking along, and they all went into the city as one. There wasn’t a lot of traffic at the moment, but the adventurers got in line behind what little there was. Seemed like you couldn’t just freely stroll into town without getting checked. The gate guard had a metal chestplate, a helmet, and a spear. Pretty solid defensive gear.

“Oh hey.” The guard greeted them. “Back from a job?”

“Yes.” Jonas was the one to answer. “A simple day job, nothing special.”

“Nice. You five have always been reliable.” The guard paused for a moment. “Wait, five? Have you added a new member?”

“Oh, no. We met a traveller along the way, and decided to head back together.”

“I see.” The guard gave her a once-over, but his expression didn’t display whether he found anything suspicious. At least he wasn’t asking if she was an elf. “Well, I’ll have to see your identification before I can let you in, Miss.”

“Uh…” Marit noticed the others had already taken out some cards, which were presumably identification. Probably standard procedure. She did remember asking the Council for ID, so with no better option she looked into the bag.

  1. _ID. Ah!_



When she thought about it, a small gold card moved to the front as if summoned. She took it out, and offered it to the guard.

“Will this do?”

His eyebrows raised in surprise. “What is this? It’s so small.” It was about the size of a driver’s license from back home. She noticed that the ones the adventurers had were closer to postcard size. “Where is this from?”

“Um… home. Far away from here.”

He squinted at it. “Trondheim? Never heard of it.”

Marit felt a brief moment of panic.  _ Why would you put my old world home on the card?! _ She knew the Council meant well, and wanted to do their best for her, but some of their decisions were putting her in trouble. Though to be fair they probably only had marginally more insight into this world than she had. Only whatever God had seen fit to tell them.

The guard hesitated. “I’m not sure…” 

“Is there a problem?” Robyn asked.

“Yes… I mean, no, probably not, but… I have never seen one like this before, so I am unsure about the procedure…” He turned, and knocked on the wall nearby. “Oy, Runi!”

Another helmet worn by a guard popped out from inside the gate structure. “Yeah?”

“Can you take this woman to see the lieutenant?”

“She done something?” The other guard, Runi, was walking closer.

“No, I just need to make sure her identification card is okay.”

“Eh?” He seemed confused for a moment, then saw what his colleague was holding. “Oh. Huh. It even has a little picture.” 

“Right?” 

That clearly piqued the interest of the adventurers too, and they craned their necks to try to get a look.

“Just come with me, Miss,” Runi said as he took the card. “I’m sure it’ll be sorted in no time.”

“Um, sure.” Marit wondered if it would have been better or worse if she’d had no ID at all. “Thank you for the escort,” she told the team.

“No problem!” Robyn grinned at her.

“I’m sure we’ll meet again,” Eri said with a smile.

“Feel free to seek us out if you need help,” Jonas added.

And Dunn just nodded at her. Not the most vocal person.

* * *

She followed the guard inside the gate structure, and up a set of stairs before ending up in a decently sized room that looked like some sort of office or meeting room. There was a desk, but also a table with four chairs around it.

“Have a seat, Miss, and I’ll go fetch the lieutenant.”

Marit did so, and wondered how long it would take. The guard had kept her ID card, probably to give it to the lieutenant directly. Back home that would have felt like the police overstepping their authority, but she couldn’t really apply the same rules here.

In spite of her nerves it did feel nice to sit down. The wait gave her time to think about the language of this place. The Council had told her that the people of this world would understand anything she said or wrote, and vice versa. Probably like a passive skill, if she was to think in videogame terms. There wasn’t anything present she could attempt to read to test that, but something would probably present itself soon enough. What she was most curious about was to what extent she was hearing what they actually said, and how much was the skill interpreting things to terms she could understand. Unless she found some way to disable that ability she would likely never find out. Maybe that was for the best, but she had always had an interest in languages and dialects, so it was a slight shame. So far the only thing she had noticed was that Robyn spoke with a dialect.

There was also the question of whether she could only understand human language, or if the skill accounted for everything. The only way to find that out was to meet people of other races.

The door opened, and in walked another new person. She was a woman in a guard uniform, though her armour was a little fancier than what the gate guards had worn. And she wasn’t wearing a helmet, so her short, golden hair was on full display. It was kept neater than Robyn’s hairdo, and even in uniform it was clear this woman was a beauty. In her hand she was holding the ID card, and her purple eyes quickly settled on Marit.

“Good afternoon. According to this you are Miss Marit Hovik, is that correct?”

Marit nodded. “Yes.” It was weird hearing her full name in this setting.

“I am lieutenant Larden. I can see why the guards called for me. It’s quite an unusual card you have.” Larden’s eyes darted slightly to the side before meeting Marit’s again.

“It’s the one they gave me back home,” was really all Marit could say.

“Hm… this Trondheim? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it.”

_ Ideally you shouldn’t have. _ “It’s very far away.”

“Oh? Which nation?”

_ How am I supposed to answer that? It’s not like I’ve had the chance to look at a world map yet, so I can’t even lie. _

She decided to try to dodge the question instead. “Am I in trouble?”

“We’re about to find out.” Larden placed some sort of device on the table. Marit hadn’t even noticed she was holding something in her other hand. It was a rectangular plate with a lens mounted over it. She placed the card onto a slot to the side that looked like it was made for something larger, and pointed at the rest of the plate to the side of the slot. “Place your hand on here, please.”

“What’s this?” Even though maybe the smart thing would have been to just comply, the question slipped out before she could stop herself.

“It’s an attunement detector, and a card reader. It’ll let me see whether the card is truly yours, and whether any crimes are registered on you.”

“Oh.” As far as she knew she hadn’t committed any crimes in this world, nor did she have a record back home. She had done some minor shoplifting in her teenage years, and driven past the speed limit at times, but she had never been caught. She still felt a little nervous as she placed her hand under the lens.

“Hm… yes, it’s yours, and you’re neither a wanted nor a convicted criminal. That’s good. You can remove your hand now.”

Marit gratefully followed that instruction while Larden picked up the card, and gave it another look.

“I didn’t suspect it was a fake, because the point of those is to look like existing items. But it is most strange. How do they do the little picture? It looks just like you.”

Photography was probably not a thing in this world, then. But anything was possible with magic, right?

“There’s a magic device that can capture an image of people, and then they stamp that onto the card, I think. I’m not completely sure of how it works myself.”

The truth wrapped in a little white lie was probably fine.

“Oh really? I wouldn’t mind having one of those… sounds like something far beyond what I could afford, though.” Larden accepted the explanation without batting an eye. She then handed the card back. “I have no issue letting you into the city, but you might want to consider having a local identification card made to avoid such issues in the future. I’ll spread the word at the gate that this card is acceptable, but I can’t tell the whole city, or anywhere else you might go in the future.”

Marit put the card back in her bag. “So how do I get one?”

“There are various ways, but there are two simple ones. You could go to a civics office and have a traveller’s ID made. There are three within the outer ring, so it shouldn’t be hard to find one if you ask around. They won’t be open this late in the day, though. Alternatively if you find a profession they can arrange for an appropriate card for you. You can’t really do business without one. I wouldn’t recommend trying to go into the middle ring before you have that sorted, or you will likely have to go through this once more.”

“I see. So am I free to go?” She didn’t want to get up or anything before she was sure.

“Indeed. Welcome to Durkandel, Miss.”

“Thank you, lieutenant,” Marit said as she got up. She noted that the lieutenant had a look of surprise for a second before it was gone. Perhaps it was due to Marit’s height, but her professionalism stopped her from saying anything.

Larden walked with her down the stairs, and to the door. “I recommend just getting a room at an inn for now, Miss.” The sky was already changing colour outside, so the sun was probably close to setting. “If you continue down main street, there will be three inns before you reach Durin plaza. I’m sure at least one of them has a vacancy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached a place! And avoided getting arrested! Hurrah! Next time we'll actually get to see inside.
> 
> While I named the lieutenant, and even took the time to describe her, I so far have no intention of making her a recurring character, so she goes untagged.
> 
> Looking back at this part now that I'm so much further ahead in my draft there are a few things I wonder if I should change, but I'm not sure in which way yet, so they're staying for now. It's an ongoing process.


	4. The Rowdy Cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Marit has been able to get into the city without being arrested, she has to find an inn to spend the night at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't get another chapter out last Saturday, because honestly I haven't had much motivation after Christmas was over. I rewatched all of Log Horizon to prepare for season 3, and found that there was so much I had plain forgotten. Which somehow included the final five episodes of season 2, which in theory I feel like I should have remembered best... strange. I could only remember half of one scene, and the rest was like watching an entirely new anime. I remembered more from the episodes that happened before it.
> 
> Anyway. One week into 2021, and what a week it's been.

She thanked the lieutenant again, and headed out onto the street. Considering how wide it was, it was no wonder they simply called it main street. You could probably drive three carriages side to side with safe space between them.

“Oh. Ya all done, Miss Marit?”

A familiar voice called out to her, and she saw someone step away from the wall across from where she exited.

“Miss Robyn? What are you doing here?”

“Well…” Robyn rubbed the back of her head. “I figured I’d hang around to make sure ya got out safely. Ya were taking yer time, so I was getting worried. All sorted, then?”

“Yes.” Marit sighed. “Thankfully. Now I need to find an inn for the night.”

Robyn grinned. “Good thing I stayed behind then. Wouldn’t want ya to get lost again.”

“Aha…” She had a decent sense of direction, but honestly in a place she’d never been before she appreciated the company.

“Come on, I’ll show ya the best one. Well, best one nearby, anyhow. I reckon ye’re pretty tired.”

“Hah, thank you.” She followed Robyn’s lead. “Does it show?”

“Nah, I just have a hunch about these things.” It was hard to tell if that was flattery or honesty. “So what happened?”

“Well, they haven’t seen my type of identification card before, so they had to check it was mine. The lieutenant approved it, but suggested I get a local ID made to avoid this becoming an issue again.” 

“That’s not a bad shout.” Robyn glanced back without missing a step. “That’ll be recognised all over the kingdom, and ideally in the surrounding nations too.”

“Ideally?”

“Weeeeell, some people like to cause problems just because they can, ya know?”

She was familiar with the concept. “I guess I should find a civics office tomorrow.” One of them was probably close to main street.

“You could, you definitely could…” Robyn nodded slightly. “But how about ya become an adventurer instead?”

“Eh?”

“Ye’d get yer guild card to use as ID on the day.”

“But…”

“Hey, ya made it all the way here on yer own. I think ya got what it takes.”

“Oh?”  _ Technically I didn’t go very far, though.  _ She had been placed fairly close by. The longest part of the journey had been handled for her.

“Let’s say I have a hunch.”

“Another one?”

“Yup. I’m good at them.” Robyn grinned.

Adventurer. That was what the protagonists of isekai stories usually ended up as, wasn’t it? Part of her wanted to say she was too old for that, but she had been given a younger body again. And she had her magical girl rod. It might be a good way to measure and keep track of her strength.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good! I’m sure ye’ll make the right call.” Marit had a ‘hunch’ of her own that Robyn thought the ‘right call’ was to join.

“Mm…” Marit looked around. It was a nice-looking city. Honestly she felt like the buildings were closer to an 1800s standard than anything earlier. The outer ring was presumably the poorer part of the city, yet it made a good impression. Of course it was possible that was just because this was the main street, and the truly poor parts were hidden away where visitors wouldn’t see them. She didn’t want to make any assumptions about how the Marquis ran his city without seeing any proof, but in her experience that was usually how things went.

Though as she was looking around she couldn’t help noticing that a lot of people were looking back at her. Some of them looked like they were mouthing or whispering something.

“Are people staring at me?” she whispered to Robyn.

“Can ya blame them? Not every day ya get to see a tall and beautiful elf.”

_ Beautiful? _ That was definitely flattery. “But I’m not an elf.”

“I know that, and ya know that, but are ya gonna go tell all of them that?”

“Ugh…” That was unfortunately a good point. She had neither the time nor the means to correct all of them.

“Let them have their fun. They think they’re seeing something rare and mysterious. I suppose in a sense they are. I’ve certainly never seen anyone quite like ya, Miss Marit.” Robyn winked.

Marit just mumbled something unintelligible. She was too preoccupied wondering if Robyn was flirting, or whether that was just what she was like, to come up with any sort of response. Hopefully the evening sun was covering up any blushing that might be happening.

_ It’s only my second day here, and I’m already getting flustered by a cute girl. I guess some things never change. I probably shouldn’t read too much into it. _

“Here we are.” Robyn stopped outside a building, presumably an inn. The sign hanging over the door was further evidence to that end, and it read: “ _ The Rowdy Cat _ ”.

_ So they do have cats here? Wait, the more important part is that I can read the sign. That’s a relief. _

“Great rooms. Great food too. Just wait and see.” Robyn pushed the door open, and Marit followed her inside, being mindful to duck under the doorframe. “Oy, Maybel! Got a customer for ya!”

There were a few people in the front room as they entered, and they looked up at Robyn and Marit, but the reception desk was empty. However a voice from the back soon answered:

“I keep telling you you don’t have to shout!”

_ You’re shouting too though. _

A woman came out of the doorway behind the desk. She had pitch-black frizzy hair tied in a ponytail, dark skin, and deep brown eyes.

“What do you want, Rob- oh.” She paused at the sight of Marit.

“I know what ye’re thinking, but she’s human. No ears.”

“Goodness.” The woman who was presumably Maybel cleared her throat, and regained her composure. “You’re here for a room then?”

“Yer best!”

Maybel fixed Robyn with a glare. “Unless you’re the one paying, you probably shouldn’t be the one deciding that.” 

“Ehehe…”

“Yes, please. Anything will do, so long as it has a bed,” Marit answered as if Robyn hadn’t interrupted at all. 

“Regular rooms are one silver per night. Two if you want breakfast and supper.”

She had no idea if that was a lot or a little.

“Blimey, that’s a bit steep, isn’t it?” Robyn had an opinion on the matter though. “How about a discount?”

“I have a business to run, Robyn. It’s tourist season, and I can’t just give anyone preferential treatment.”

“But-”

“It’s okay.” Marit was already digging out the money from her bag. The pile was just sorta there, not entirely tangible, but she figured out how to extract one coin at a time, and counted up to ten. “I’d like five nights for now, please.” She didn’t know how long she’d be staying, but that seemed like a decent start.

It would be nice to know how many silver one gold was worth. The safe bet was a hundred, but she wanted to get confirmation first. Preferably without asking an actual person, since it would be rather embarrassing to admit she didn’t know. She’d definitely need to find a library or a bookstore. By Robyn’s reaction she would guess there was a smaller currency than silver, so at least there was that. 

“Alright.” Maybel collected the money. “The dining area is on your left. Supper is still available for about an hour, just talk to Kiki. The bath is behind me on your right.” She gestured with her hand. “Don’t take more than half an hour, or you’ll inconvenience the other guests. Let’s see here…” She turned around, grabbed a key, then put it on the counter. “Room 5. Up the stairs, and down the corridor on your right. There’s a sink in the room, but the toilet is at the end of the corridor.”

_ A bath? A sink? Toilet? Do they actually have plumbing? _ When you substituted technology for magic, it was hard to say what was possible. Or the translation was messing with her.

“Thank you.” Marit grabbed the key.

“Wanna eat together?” Robyn asked.

“ _ You _ still have to pay,” Maybel was quick to point out.

“I know that! Eesh, build up a tab once, and ya never hear the end of it...”

As much as they were bickering, Marit didn’t sense any hostility between them. It seemed more like friendly banter, though it was still a bit awkward to watch.

“I’m sorry, but I think I just want to go to the room. I’m exhausted.” With rest so close at hand, her body was aching for it.

“No worries, I understand. Some other time, yeah?”

They parted ways, and Marit headed for the room. Unlock, enter, lock again. The room looked okay, but she wasn’t really in the mood to explore at the moment. She barely managed to get her boots off before collapsing on the bed fully dressed. 

* * *

It was dark. Mostly dark. There was a bit of light coming in from somewhere. Marit rubbed her eyes as she wondered where she was. It slowly came back to her.

_ Oh, right. The inn. _

She pushed herself up, and tried to ignore how gross she felt. Instead she looked around to try to find where the light was coming from. She could just about make out the window. Since she had immediately collapsed, she hadn’t actually closed the curtains, or blinds, or whatever it had. It was impossible to tell from where she was, so she got up. Her legs were not happy that she wanted to use them again already, but she wanted to get a look outside.

It was actually a glass window. She had thought as much when she walked down the main street, but being able to tap the window confirmed it. And she could even see street lamps outside, but she really couldn’t tell if they were firelit, or magic. Opening the window didn’t let her see any better, but the mild air felt nice on her face. 

Even with the lamps on, the street was largely deserted. She could see some figures stumbling about, and a couple that walked with more purpose. They could be guards on patrol. The light was weaker than she was used to back home, so it was hard to make things out clearly.

Up above she could see a night sky full of stars slightly dimmed by the light poisoning. The moon was much more visible, and a little over half full, though whether it was waning or waxing she couldn’t say for sure. If it was the same as back home then it was on its way to being full, but it might be the opposite here. Then she noticed a second moon in a different part of the sky, that was a little less than half full. That caused her to look for even more, but she could only find the two. It was possible there were more that simply weren’t visible from this angle. They looked pretty much equal in size. She wondered if their orbits ever overlapped enough that you got double full moons. In a world that potentially had werewolves that was an interesting, and possibly dangerous scenario.

She sighed, and closed the window. She considered pulling the curtains, but that would make the room completely dark. There wasn’t that much light that reached inside in the first place. She should probably go back to bed, but she was stuck alone with her thoughts now. The rest of the day had been too hectic for her to think much. Considering she wasn’t exactly done processing her feelings about the life she left behind, being alone in the dark wasn’t the best place to be.

_ Can I distract myself in any way? I told myself I could cry into a pillow as much as I needed when I found a bed, but... _

Putting it off probably wasn’t healthy either, but she felt restless, and wanted to do  _ something _ . She had noticed light coming from a few windows across the street. Perhaps there was a light source of some kind in here too. Not that she had anything to light a candle with, but that might also be in the room somewhere. She tried to glean anything from the shapes she could barely make out, but it was just shapes. They told her very little. She’d have to get closer, and fumble around.

If there was any sort of ceiling light, she’d have a hell of a time turning it on in the dark. She hadn’t noticed anything of the sort when coming in, but she hadn’t really been looking at anything except the bed. The next logical place to look was by the bed. If you wanted to put a lamp or nightlight in the room of an inn, you’d want it in easy reach at night, right?

Sure enough, on the far side of the bed she discovered a small table, and there was something on it. She tried to get a feel for what it was when suddenly it lit up, causing her to recoil, and fall off the bed.

“Ow…”

First point of damage sustained in the new world. Was the wooden floor getting revenge for the tree Marit had so savagely attacked earlier?

Getting her head back up over the edge of the bed, she actually got a look at what was on the table. It was a light, but not a candle. It was sort of shaped like a candle, but the ‘flame’ on top looked more like a crystal. She crawled closer, and picked it up by the handle on the base. The light was a soft orange rather than a bright white, and wasn’t that harsh on the eyes. As far as she could tell it was not giving off any heat, so curiosity compelled her to touch it again. There was a warmth to it, but the response to her touch was that the light went out again. A third touch turned it back on.

_ Interesting. _

She took the hairbrush out of her bag, and tried touching that to the crystal, but it did nothing. So it responded to human touch. Well, probably any race, if she thought about it. At least she had a light now. The next point on the agenda was how gross she felt. It probably wasn’t acceptable to go take a bath in the middle of the night, so that would unfortunately have to wait. But she had a toothbrush, and the innkeeper had mentioned a sink, so hopefully she could do something about the icky feeling in her mouth.

It wasn’t a large room, so it didn’t take her long to find it in the back corner. Not metal, but a wooden bowl with a hole in the bottom feeding into a pipe. That wasn’t definite proof of plumbing, it could just be a runoff to somewhere. Sewers weren’t exactly a modern idea, after all. Above the bowl they had mounted another crystal. She tried touching it, and water started flowing out. It didn’t seem like the water was coming in from outside.

_ Magic crystals? _

It wasn’t quite as cold as she was used to from the tap back home, but it was still cool enough. Unfortunately she couldn’t find any toothpaste in the bag. Even if she had thought to ask for some, she didn’t know if she had any way to get more once she ran out. She might be able to find something she could use to floss if she had a look around town, but for now all she could do was scrub and rinse. Not the refreshing feeling she was used to, but it still felt much better than before. She extracted a bar of soap to also wash her hands. The council had given her a stack of five, so it should last a while. There were five toothbrushes too. It probably made sense that they liked the number five. At least soap was something she was more likely to find more of than toothpaste if she ran out.

Now that she felt mildly better, she decided to go back to bed. Any further exploration of the room could wait, since fatigue was clawing at her. She extracted herself from the tunic and trousers, and also took off the shirt she found underneath. While the bag contained additional underwear and shirts, they had only given her the one set of outerwear. She’d have to go clothes shopping at some point.

The sheet wasn’t especially thick, but that was probably appropriate for the season. Even at this time of night it had felt like it was about 15 degrees outside. She turned the light off, and closed her eyes.

With nothing to further distract her, the feelings of grief and homesickness came back to haunt her, but eventually she fell back asleep as exhaustion won out. 

* * *

The next time she woke up daylight was streaming in through the window, and filling the room. And as soon as she got dressed, Marit went to deal with a pressing need.

Thankfully the toilet wasn’t occupied. While there didn’t seem to be a way to flush, stuff was still whisked away somehow. She chalked it up to another instance of magic, as she had no temptation to further examine it. She did find another sink in there, with a bar of soap attached to a chain. So at least she had confirmation that soap existed, but if they were that worried about it being stolen, perhaps it was expensive?

Back in the room she found a full-body mirror. She had probably already seen it, but simply not registered it. It was a tad short for her perhaps, but if she stood a little further back she could see all of herself. Having a look in it revealed that she appeared to look just like herself. Brown hair, blue eyes, tall, and reasonably curvy. Though she also looked like a mess at the moment. She wanted to do something about her hair, but figured it might be best to leave until after she finally had a bath.

When she got downstairs the place was fairly empty, except for Maybel cleaning the tables in the front room.

“Good morning.”

Maybel looked up at her. “Oh, Miss Marit. Rather late morning, I’d say. Most people have left already.”

“Oh…” Marit suddenly felt embarrassed.

“Robyn told me you had a long journey, so I guess it’s understandable.”

“Does that mean I’m too late for breakfast?”

“Ordinarily yes, but I’m willing to make an exception. Kiki should still be in the kitchen. Tomorrow you’ll have to get up on time, though.”

“Thank you.” Marit smiled. She still had no idea how to tell time, and no way to set an alarm, so that might be rough. Maybe it would be easier to bribe them into giving her food outside of meal hours. Or she could just eat through the lunch boxes. The Council might get sad if she ignored them. Assuming they were able to find out.

The dining area had about ten tables. She’d been in restaurants smaller than that. She wasn’t sure if there were really enough rooms in the inn for that, or whether people came in just to eat. The latter was plausible.

“Um, excuse me?” She walked up to the counter, and called out.

“Yes?” After a couple of seconds a girl came out of the back, presumably the kitchen. She paused for a moment at seeing Marit, but quickly composed herself. This was probably Kiki. She looked pretty much just like a younger version of Maybel. Same eyes, same hair, tied up in much the same way.

_ Is Maybel old enough to have a daughter this old? Maybe they’re sisters. _

“Miss Maybel said I could still get breakfast.”

“Oh?” Kiki glanced to the side, perhaps checking for Maybel’s approval, but Marit didn’t turn to look. “Okay. What would you like?”

“Um… what do you have?”

Kiki showed her a menu, and she ended up with some bread, butter, a fried egg, and a bit of fried meat. And a glass of apple juice. Apples always seemed to be the most universal fruit. It was a little heavier than she was used to for breakfast, but she had no problem wolfing it down. She hadn’t eaten anything since about mid-day the day before. Maybe digging into one of the lunchboxes when she got back to the room wasn’t a bad idea.

She put the used plate and utensils on the counter before heading back to Maybel.

“Excuse me, do you have a towel I could borrow?”

“A what?” Maybel gave her a strange look.

“You know, for drying off after a bath?”

“Oh, a towel! Sorry, I didn’t quite hear what you said. There is one in your room, by the sink. Comes with each room.”

“Ah, thank you.” 

_ That was a bit odd. Did she really mishear? I thought I spoke clearly. _

It was probably not worth worrying about. She found the towel easily, and headed into the bath. The upside of everyone else having left was that she didn’t have to queue. She had honestly expected a bathtub, but it was a stone bath instead. There was a constant stream of water coming from a stone shaped like a cat’s head up above. Probably filled with another crystal. Or maybe they needed a combination of crystals to get warm water? The stone head wasn’t high enough that she could use it like a real shower, but at least she could duck her head under it to rinse her hair properly. Soap was provided here too. There didn’t seem to be anything like shampoo, nor did she have any in her bag, but she did what she could with regular soap. Definitely better than nothing.

She felt refreshed for the first time since coming here. And she could even put on clean underwear, and a fresh shirt. Still only one set of outerwear though. Shopping for more clothes was a priority, but she should also inquire about laundry. Maybel would probably know.

When she actually checked the tunic and trousers, she found they didn’t have much of a smell to them at all. Curious. Seemed like all of the odour had come from herself. She didn’t feel as bad about putting them back on in that case, though she’d still love some deodorant. Perhaps she should have been more specific about such things with the Council, but she hadn’t exactly been in the best state of mind. And it wouldn’t have solved the problem of what to do when she ran out. A magical infinite deodorant stick would have been nice, but regardless of whether that was within their power it was too late now.

She went right back to her room, finished off the bread and cheese lunch box that Blue had put in her bag, and got the hairbrush out to try to sort her hair as much as possible. It was a nice feeling, and it gave her time to think about what to do. 

Her list of things to check out kept growing longer. It included stuff like shopping for clothes, getting to know the surrounding area, get a map, find a bookstore or library, try to scout out what sorts of goods were actually available here, and get a pen and a notebook to actually write down the list. 

Though what she should probably get sorted first was the matter of ID. It had been in the back of her mind since Robyn suggested it, but becoming an adventurer was probably her best option. It was dangerous, but she had spent several years of her teens fighting monsters, and other evil things. Even if she was out of practice, surely some of that remained in her, and she had been given her powers back. She would need a source of income sooner or later, and she needed ID right now.

_ And it’s not like I have any skills that could easily get me into other professions. _

She had used to be an accountant for a company. So maybe that qualified her for some sort of commerce job, but she wasn’t sure she could claim she had much business sense. She was better at dealing with numbers than people, and a chance to get away from paperwork was tempting. A spreadsheet was a monster in its own right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not a lot happening. Mainly establishing the world. Stuff will happen eventually, I promise.
> 
> Speaking of stuff happening, Yuru Camp S2 starts today.


	5. Books And Guild Card

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit finds a bookstore which provides her with a lot of study material, and gets herself registered as an adventurer.

With her mind made up, she headed downstairs again.

“Oh my.” Maybel was behind the front counter again. “You’re very pretty when you’re cleaned up, Miss Marit.” She flashed a quick grin.

Marit cheeks felt a little warm at the compliment. “Thank you…”

She decided to ask about laundry first. They didn’t offer that service at the inn, but Maybel said there were businesses that handled that sort of stuff for those who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) do it on their own. She took out a map to show Marit the two closest ones she’d recommend. If one of them was over capacity, the other could probably do it instead.

Next was the adventurers’ guild. It was close to the plaza the lieutenant had mentioned the day before. She just had to take a left down the biggest road, and it should be very obvious when she got there. It looked like a pretty big building on the map. If only she could take it with her.

That did remind her to ask about libraries and bookstores, since those could have maps. The only library in town was in the middle ring, and unfortunately you needed to apply for a license to enter. Basically you needed to get your library card before you were allowed to set foot inside. But there was a bookstore in Durin plaza, on the right-hand side. It shouldn’t be hard to find her way back there after visiting the guild, or she could drop by there first.

After doing her best to memorise the map, she headed out. There were more people and more bustle outside at this time of day, and consequently it meant Marit got a lot more stares. She even thought she could hear some of them say: “An elf?” But maybe that was just her imagination. At least no one approached her.

She noticed one of the laundry places as she walked past, but a single set of underwear wasn’t enough to go inside for. She felt certain she could find her way back to it now that she had seen it, though.

When she reached the plaza, she paused for a minute just to look around. There was a large statue of someone on a horse in the middle. Maybe the Marquis? Or the founder of the city? Every building along the side of the plaza looked like some sort of store or eatery, and through the crowd of people she could see several carts a little distance away from the statue. Street vendors seemed like a safe bet.

Once she was finished surveying, she decided to hit up the bookstore first. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be at the guild, and it would give her a chance to pass by the street vendors as she crossed the plaza afterwards.

It took her a minute to find it, as she studied each store sign carefully. She realised that it might have been easier to just look for the place that had books on display in the window. The storefront didn’t look that big, so she wasn’t sure how much they actually had in stock, but she didn’t exactly have any other options. 

There was the tinkle of a bell as she opened the door. Apparently that was something they thought of in both worlds. The place was a little dusty, and absolutely stacked with books. So much so that they obscured the light from outside, and made it seem a little dim. Honestly it reminded her more of one of the used books stores she went to when she was younger than any of the fancy new ones.

_ How are you supposed to find anything in here? _

“Welcome.” A voice called out to her from somewhere within the shop.

She walked past a couple of shelves, and found the store’s counter, behind which sat an elderly man with white hair, a bushy white beard, and an old-fashioned pair of glasses. It was possible it was recent fashion in this world. Regardless she thought it was nice to see that glasses existed here.

_ I suppose you’re meant to ask. _

“Hello. I’m new to the area, and was hoping to find some books to help me out. Maybe even a map or two.”

“You don’t say.” The man got up, and out from behind the counter. Maybe he wasn’t as old as he looked, because he seemed pretty spry. “Anything more specific you could tell me, Miss?”

“Hm…” There was quite a lot she wanted to know, but what sorts of books could tell her? “Anything that could tell me about local culture and customs. Some history maybe. The state of the political and social climate. I’d like to know more about this kingdom, and its relations with neighbouring nations.” And learn of the other nations by extension. There was probably stuff she was forgetting, but she could always come back again. “And it would be nice to have maps of the city, the kingdom, and the world.”

The man was already looking through his collection. “Goodness, that’s quite a lot you ask for. Heavy topics too.”

“Um, yes, I’m new to this… part of the world.” She had nearly said ‘new to this world’. “I’d prefer not to make any easily avoidable mistakes.” Like not knowing how much money is worth.

“I understand. I’ll see what I can find. Feel free to look around for yourself as well.” He nodded at her before vanishing into the book maze.

Marit stayed near the window side of the store as she browsed the book titles nearby.

_ Magic theory. Noble etiquette. Myths and legends. Mercantilism. Bestiary. Agriculture. Hm… some of these could be useful… this stack looks like it’s mostly fiction. The shelf beyond it too.  _

She decided to pick up the bestiary,  and the magic theory book. Hopefully it was suitable for beginners, because she wouldn’t mind some insight into how the magic of this world actually worked. She could come back for anything else as she felt the need for it.

When she walked back around the shelf to the counter there was already a small stack of books there, but the shopkeep was nowhere in sight. He had to be fast if he’d found those, dropped them off, and headed back in without her noticing. She examined the books he’d dropped off.

_ Vanefar’s history. Is that the name of this kingdom? Or the world? _

They all seemed to fit within what she had asked for. It was going to take a while to get through all this, but at least her room at the inn had a nightlight. Not like she had a whole lot else to occupy her in the evening except her own thoughts, and it might be best to give those a little breathing room.

“Pardon the wait, Miss.” She turned her head to see the old man coming back, his arms full. “This is all I could find that seemed relevant. I’m afraid the only world map I have isn’t very detailed, and is honestly more just a map of the continent, but at least the nations and general geography should be correct.”

She wondered if it was the kind that had ‘Here Be Dragons’ written around the edge. Though this world might actually  _ have  _ dragons.

“I’m sorry about the trouble.” She hadn’t really thought through how much effort it might be to find it all.

“Don’t worry about it.” The shopkeep went back behind the counter. “It makes sense you’d be curious. We don’t see a lot of elves around here after all. Why, it must have been five years since the last.”

“Um… I’m actually human…” Marit felt a bit sheepish, though it was probably best to admit it.

“Hm?” The shopkeep looked up at her, and adjusted his glasses. “Oh! So you are. My apologies, Miss.”

“No worries, I’ve been getting that a lot lately. How much?” She made sure to put  the two books she had picked for herself down in plain sight so they also got counted, along with a notebook, a quill, and some ink. She hadn’t actually used a quill before, but they had tried writing with an inkpen in middle school, and she assumed the principle was the same. Her brief exploration hadn’t revealed anything resembling a pencil or pen.

“You’re sure you want all of them?” Marit nodded at him. “Alright then.” He did some obvious, but silent counting, then brought out some tome or other from under the counter. An inventory ledger maybe? “I’m afraid a couple of these are on the expensive side. The total comes to 22 silver, and 74 copper. Would you like to remove any of them?”

Marit still had very little idea how much that was, but since an inn cost one silver per night, it was probably rather pricey. “No, that’s okay. I’ll take them.” She reached into her bag, and placed 25 silver on the counter.

The old man counted them, paused for a second, and counted again. “Miss, this is too much. Take these two back, and-”

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a tip… er, a bonus for the trouble. I insist.”

He hesitated for a bit longer, then sighed. “If you say so. Thank you, Miss.” He put the money away as Marit started loading the books and maps into her bag of holding. “If you would be willing to satisfy an old man’s curiosity… might I inquire where you’re from, Miss?”

“Uh…” It was her time to hesitate. “A land very far away. To the north.” Maybe she shouldn’t have added that last part, but it slipped out.

“I see…” He stroked his beard. “I’ve heard stories about giant humans living up past the known borders. Tall tales, if you will.” He smiled at his own joke. “But perhaps there is some truth to them, after all.”

“Heh, perhaps.” She had probably said too much. “Thank you again, Mister. I’ll be back if I need anything else.”

* * * 

The light felt a little sharp as she got back outside, so she took a moment to orient herself, and made sure she was headed the right way before she walked on. The street vendors beckoned. Sure, she had eaten like an hour ago, maybe less, but a snack couldn’t hurt. And she could scope them out for later. She’d probably head through this plaza several times in the coming days. Weeks. Or even months. 

Though if she was staying for that long, she’d need to look into getting some sort of permanent residence. While she technically could keep living at the inn, it would probably cost way more than simply renting a home for the same duration. Maybe she could even buy a place. She could always sell it again if she decided to move. Furnishing a home didn’t sound like the most tempting thing, but it would be nice to have a place of her own.

She still had four nights left at the inn, so she didn’t have to do everything that day, and she could extend her stay a little if needed. At least when she got back later she could actually start writing that list. If she wanted to make the most of the second chance she’d been given, and honour those she had left behind, there would be a lot to take care of.

The food carts were up next. There was an interesting, if not exactly unusual line-up. Grilled meats and/or vegetables on skewers, baskets of bread, pots of soup, fruit juice, a mix of fried things, and more. With how many people wandered through the plaza they probably got a lot of business.

Since she’d already had a pretty heavy breakfast, she decided to just get a skewer of roasted mushrooms and veggies on the way to the guild. And since she still only had silver to pay with, she got her first pieces of copper as change. 

“Adventurers’ Guild, Durkandel Branch”

Even without the sign over the entrance, the guild building had an air about it that gave away what it was. Or maybe it was the large number of very obvious adventurers going in and out of the building, and milling about outside. It seemed unlikely that you’d find anyone else dressed in that variety of armour, and a lot of the weapons they had equipped were probably not something you’d see in an army or guard force. While it was mostly humans, she also counted several shorter, stouter individuals that were most likely dwarves. She felt a tiny bit of excitement at seeing her first non-humans.

_ I’m not counting the dead bandit. _

Though there was no one quite like her. She had kinda hoped that maybe there would be an elf or two here, but based on what everyone had told her so far, it made sense that there weren’t. And none of the humans she saw quite reached up to her height. So naturally she started gaining a lot of attention among the crowd.

_ Ignore them. Ignore them. _

Her face was starting to heat up, but hopefully she wasn’t obviously blushing. Inside there were even more adventurers. Most of whom were either clustered around various boards, or off to the sides discussing something or other. There was a lot of noise, so it was hard to single out anyone specific to hear what they were saying. Interestingly the split between male and female adventurers was much more even than she had expected.

The noise level noticeably lowered as people started noticing her. She could hear whispers of ‘elf’ among them, and more people started turning in her direction as they wondered what was going on, and why everyone was quieting down.

_ Please don’t let them be the kind who pick fights. _

She probably couldn’t beat any of them in a fight without transforming, and that would almost certainly cause an uproar.

Thankfully there was currently no one standing at reception, so she could talk to a receptionist right away. There were three counters, but only one of them had someone sitting behind it. It was a human woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair, who was currently looking at something on the desk, and not really paying attention to the room.

“Good morning,” Marit greeted her.

“Good…” The woman looked up. And up. Her blue eyes grew wide. “Morning?”

Marit suppressed a sigh.  _ I’ve gotta get used to this, aren’t I? _ “I’d like to register as an adventurer, please.”

“Huh?” The receptionist’s eyes blinked. “Oh! Um, y-yes, of course.” A blush crept into her cheeks as she quickly turned to grab a sheet of paper. “Fill out this form, please.” She also pushed her quill and inkwell forwards. Time to test how well she could handle this form of writing.

“Okay.” She eyed the form. Name, of course. Date of birth? She didn’t actually know anything about what calendar this world used, so she couldn’t just fake a date. Would her translation skill work on this? That was her best bet. Though considering she had been given a younger body, she should shave down her birth year. Saying she was 21 seemed like a good deal. Race, of course. Place of residence… that would have to be this city, as of current. It felt fair enough to just use wherever the ID was being issued, right?

“Um… what does it mean by ‘class’?” It was probably what she suspected, but it was best to make sure.

“Oh, that’s what type of role you function as. You know, whether you’re a ranger, a fighter, a magician, and so on. It helps when you’re making or joining parties, and the guild likes to keep track of what we have at our disposal, so to speak, in case any special quests come in. Just write whatever you think fits your style best.”

“Hm…” What class would a magical girl be? Or was that her class? The Council had said she didn’t need to hide that she was a magical girl in this world. Perhaps that meant magical girls were a known thing here. “Do you know what a magical girl is?”

The receptionist gave her a look that basically said ‘no’. “Is that some type of wizard? A magic user?”

“No, not quite, more like a magic… fighter?”

“Hm…” The receptionist was giving her a puzzled, but intrigued look. “Could you describe it for me?”

“Um… well…” How does one describe a magical girl to someone who might have never seen one? “I transform into a different outfit, which gives me enhanced strength, and special abilities.”

“Oh, like a magic knight?”

“Magic… knight?”

“You put on an enchanted suit of armour that powers you up?”

_ They have magical power armour? Isn’t that a bit overpowered? How are regular people supposed to stand up to that? _ “Kinda, but not quite that either…”

“I don’t usually ask for this, but… could you demonstrate? Please?” She was definitely intrigued.

“I suppose, but…” Marit looked around the room, where most people’s attention was turned towards her. “Not in front of everyone, I think.” She’d have to get used to it eventually, but one step at a time.

“I understand. There’s a briefing room in the back we can use. Follow me.”

“Um… should you really be leaving the desk?”

“If anyone needs anything, then Ren can handle it.”

The briefing room turned out to be a simple room with a large table that had eight chairs around it.

“Go ahead.” The woman seemed eager at this point.

“Alright. Make sure to stand back.” The energy of the transformation was pretty intense, so anyone in close proximity could get harmed by it. That wasn’t certain, but she didn’t feel like testing it. She grabbed her wand. “Wav-”  _ No. I’m not saying that out loud in front of another adult. Not unless I have no other choice. _ Instead she closed her eyes, and focused. It was a little harder to visualise what she wanted without the old trigger phrase to help her, but she knew it should be possible. Nina had done it all the time, and Birgitte had picked up that habit towards the end too. After a moment or two she could feel the rod stir, and then respond to her wish. The magic flooded into her.

While she could feel every facet of the transformation, to the receptionist it should look like no more than a brief flash of light before Marit was standing there dressed differently.

“Whoa! That’s so… cute.”

“Pardon?”

“I-I’m sorry, I just…” She cleared her throat. “So you’re stronger now?”

“Yup.” Marit pushed the chairs out of the way, and lifted the table up with one hand. 

“Wow.”

“I can also cast some spells, and I have my weapon.” She raised her rod, and the sword-blade materialised out of it. “It can become different weapons as I need them.” She showed off the axe, the whip, and the bow.

“I must confess I have never seen anything like it. It’s rather exciting. Is it a special elven magic?”

“Um… no, you see… I’m actually human.” She felt a bit awkward pointing it out, but it was better than pretending.

“You are? Oh, I’m… I’m so sorry, I… oh, you even wrote so right here.” She looked at the form. “I’m really sorry, Miss Hovik.”

Marit sighed. “Don’t worry too much about it, I’ve been getting that a lot the past couple of days. And you can call me Marit.”

“Alright, Miss Marit. I’m Verona.” She smiled sheepishly. “Are magical girls common where you’re from?”

“No, I… we… only a handful get chosen.”

“Chosen?”

“Yes. By, uh… the gods.” The Council could be considered god-like beings, at least, even if apparently there was also a God.

“Oooohhh.” Verona sounded impressed. “Very well, I’ll write magical girl on your form then.” 

“Huh? But if people don’t know what it is, won’t that just confuse them?”

“I like the sound of it.”

Apparently that was the end of that discussion.

* * * 

“So this is what a guild card looks like?” They were back at reception, and Marit looked at her newly printed identification. It was a similar golden colour to the one the Council had prepared for her, so either they had a bit of insight, or it was some freaky coincidence. But it was definitely larger, closer to postcard size, made to fit into the scanning and reading slots she’d seen so far.

“Yes. It’s been attuned to you especially, and won’t work for anyone else. It also contains information on your rank, quests you’ve completed, failed, and that are currently active, plus registering a few other things. The handbook I gave you goes into more detail. All quests need to be registered through the guild, but it also works at other branches you visit.”

“I see…” A far more advanced system than she had anticipated.

“I should warn you that you need to keep active if you don’t want to lose your job. If you don’t complete at least one quest per month, you’re at risk of being terminated, and if you haven’t been able to rank up within a year, you will face an evaluation of whether you’ll be allowed to stay an adventurer. Each completed quest earns you some points towards advancing your rank. Those at the same rank give you a little, but it can build up quickly. Higher ranked ones give more. And lower-ranked ones don’t give a lot, if any, but could still be worth it for other rewards.” 

_ Almost like experience points. _

“When you have ranked up once, you are safe so long as you keep taking quests. Lower-ranked adventurers are still an important part of the guild for handling common quests. Admittedly the higher your rank is, the more privileges and leeway you tend to get given.”

“I see.”  _ So they want to make sure they only keep those capable and willing to do the job. _

“For now only quests on the beginner and novice boards are open to you. If you are able to join a higher-ranked party, you will be allowed to join them on higher quests, but your reward will be determined by their evaluation of your contribution. With all that said: Welcome to the adventurers’ guild, Miss Marit.” Verona smiled at her.

“Thank you, Miss Verona.” Marit needed to look through the handbook they had given her too.  _ Have I given myself too much reading? _ She asked for directions to various places she wanted to stop by, and then turned to head out. She could accept a quest once she was a little more settled.

On the way out she was greeted by a familiar voice.

“Miss Marit!”

And saw several familiar faces.

“Miss Robyn. Mister Jonas. Miss Eri. Mister Dunn.” Pretty much the only four familiar faces in this town so far. “Are you here looking for more work?”

Jonas shook his head. “No, we were thinking we’d take a day or two off before taking a new quest.”

“But then we heard a lot of murmuring about an elf entering the adventurers’ guild, and look who we find.” Robyn winked at her.

“Aha, yeah…” Marit scratched at her cheek awkwardly. Of course word would spread fast. Hopefully everyone got used to her soon enough. And vice versa.

“Did you come here to register?” Eri asked. 

“Yeah, I just got my card.”

Robyn grinned wide. She had been the one who suggested it, after all. “Congrats! May I see?” 

“Uh, I suppose so.” She had just put it away in her bag, but it wasn’t really any trouble to take it back out. 

“All new and shiny! It’s almost nostalgic.”

“They don’t lose their shine, Robyn,” Eri remarked.

“I guess, but it still feels different. Hm?” Robyn paused, and took a closer look. “Magical girl? What’s that?”

“I… uh… I’ll show you sometime.” Not in the middle of the crowd.

“Hm… fair enough.” She handed the card back, and Marit put it in her bag again.

“We should take you out to celebrate.” Jonas smiled. “What do you say?” 

“Um… I have some places I’d like to stop by before I forget. Maybe later?”

“Then I have a plan!” Robyn bopped herself on the chest. “How about I show ya around, Miss Marit? Ya don’t really know the city yet, yeah? Then we can all get back together around dinner for a celebration?”

Jonas stroked his freshly shaved chin. “Not a bad idea. I can get us a proper reservation somewhere… the usual place?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I go with you?”

“Of course, Eri. Well then, Miss Marit. Where is it ye’d like to go?”

Seemed like everything had been decided without any further input from Marit.  _ I guess it’s fine to not be alone right now. And even with the map I’ll get around faster with someone who knows the way. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed a lot of ideas from Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear when it came to setting up how the adventurering stuff works. It was very fresh in mind when I was first writing it, and I think it's a neat setup.
> 
> These are coming out a little slower than I had intended. I haven't written anything new this year. Just had zero motivation. January always seems to be my lowest energy month. I still have enough material to keep posting new chapters here for a while, but a lack of writing interest also means a lack of proof-reading interest.


	6. Shopping and Sparring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit gets a tour around some shops, and has a sparring match.

The first stop was the weapon shop.

“Don’t ya already have a weapon, Miss Marit?” 

It was fair to assume that Robyn referred to the magical girl rod. Both because Marit had said it was for self-defence, and because if you got over staring at how tall she was, that was probably the second thing you noticed. It was beautiful and unusual, so it stood out, and why else would it be on her belt? Perhaps it would have been smart to put it in her bag, or cover it up somehow, but having it in easy reach made her feel safer. She wasn’t sure how well she could defend herself without it, but it might be best to work on improving that.

“I do, but I’d like to have a backup.”

A sword would be the best bet. Back when she still did sword training and fencing lessons she had actually been pretty good at it. It had been a while, but if she could shake off that rust then maybe she’d be able to manage a little even without transforming. It would be ideal if that never became necessary, but she’d rather be safe than sorry. 

It did not seem like the place forged its own weapons, it merely sold them. There was too much variety. Naturally there were swords, axes, and spears, but also bows, crossbows, and other assorted armaments. There were even staves. Most of which seemed to be for magical use, but some looked like they were only intended to hit things. Though ideally any wizard’s staff should make do as a decent club if needed. 

There were no katanas though, which wasn’t a big surprise. The closest would likely be a sabre or falchion if she wanted a single-edged sword. The wise choice was to go with a double-edged one like she was used to, though. Her nerdy fascination with katanas had largely come after she had stopped fencing lessons, so most of her training was with double-edged blades. And with her current physical strength having a sword she could hold with both hands was probably a necessity. She’d have to work out if she wanted to wield a sword one-handed easily without transforming.

Certain things were like riding a bike. Checking a sword’s balance and feel was one of them, at least for her. They all looked pretty much the same, but she could get a feeling for how it would be to wield just from holding it and moving it about a little. She couldn’t exactly do a thorough test in the middle of the shop, but she felt pretty confident in her choice of longsword. She felt a little less sure about her pick of sabre, but she had judged it as best she could.

_ It can’t hurt to have one of each, if only to practice with. _

“So ye’re a sword user too, Miss Marit?”

“Well… primarily, I suppose. I’m a bit out of practice, though.”  _ Too… that’s right, Robyn was wielding a sword when we first met. _ “Would you be willing to spar with me at some point, Miss Robyn? I’d like to try to shake off this rust.”

“Why, it would be my pleasure, Miss Marit.”

_ Why the formal response? Are you excited? Then again, I kinda am too. _

After briefly glancing at the other weapons, perhaps to get some ideas for what she could manifest from her rod, she paid for the two blades. She felt thrilled that the shopkeep was actually a dwarf, who was clearly looking up at how tall she was, though both parties tried to not be too obvious about it. Though she didn’t have any idea whether the weapons were expensive or cheap, the fact that neither Robyn nor Eri made any comment probably meant it was as expected.

Next up was clothes shopping, and Marit had little choice but to defer to the other two as to where to go. Eri hadn’t been able to contribute much with the weaponry, but she had some ideas for where to go for clothing. Honestly Marit wanted to question her about the magic of this world, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it in a way that didn’t seem too suspicious. Maybe the books she had bought would teach her enough that she could ask some more specific questions.

The foremost problem with buying clothes was that they didn’t really have anything made for her size. Trousers didn’t reach her ankles, and tops didn’t cover her whole stomach, or have long enough sleeves. There were dresses long enough that they still seemed an okay length even on her, but unless they were sleeveless they still had  _ that  _ issue. She’d had issues with getting the right sizes back home as well, since most women’s clothing was aimed at shorter people, but she was still within range, and could usually find  _ something _ . This was just demoralising. Even men’s wear was a tad short, and even if it hadn’t been, it was typically too broad for her.

The best they could do was find something she liked the look of, and ask the store if they could tailor one to her size. She was at least able to get some orders put in that way, but it was still embarrassing how they had to get something to stand on just to measure her. So it would be a while longer before she could have more than one set of outerwear.

“Ye’re looking a bit red there, Miss Marit.”

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Eri tried to sound reassuring.

They had more luck in terms of underwear. Granted some of it looked less comfortable than what she already had, but she was able to find something that had decent-feeling fabric. And thankfully her hips and bust weren’t as much above average as her height, so it would fit. Honestly she felt less embarrassed about being measured for that, since she was old enough to be used to it. She could (mostly) ignore having to crouch down for them to reach her chest. It was probably for the best that only the girls had come along on this shopping trip.

Next up Marit wanted to have a look at the marketplace. She was rather curious what sorts of produce were available in the area, and checking out market stalls felt like the best way to learn. And she was able to ask Robyn and Eri about general stores and such she could keep in mind for later.

The two of them had been based in Durkandel for a while, though they arrived from different places. Eri came from further west several years ago to complete her magical studies with a mentor she had been assigned to here, and had become an adventurer shortly after her training was complete.

Robyn had rolled into town a couple of years ago, coming from a village down to the southwest. Becoming an adventurer had always been her goal, so she had joined as soon as she arrived. Perhaps that was why she was so quick to suggest it to Marit as well. By the time she had ranked up to novice, and started looking for a party, Jonas, Eri, and Dunn had already been a group for about half a year. They were quick to welcome her, and the four of them had been together since.

They were of course quite curious about her as well, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to answer any of it. In essence she started building her own backstory based on as much of the truth as she was able to spin into something she thought might be believable. She went with what she had told the old man at the bookstore that she was from somewhere far to the north, and added that a magical accident had sent her far away from home. They could probably tell from how she was talking that she was not telling them the full story, but they were considerate enough to not pry too much. Though they asked whether she was trying to get back.

“I don’t think that’s… reasonable.” She had nearly said ‘possible’, but if it was supposed to be somewhere in this world, then surely it would just be a matter of travel time. Telling them that God had said ‘no’ would require too much explanation.

The marketplace didn’t really hold any surprises, which was maybe the most surprising thing. Part of her had expected all sorts of other-worldly goods, but all the fruits and vegetables looked like things from back home. Tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbages, gourds, apples, pears, berries, and so on. So if this world had any special magic fruits or veggies they weren’t being sold here. Even the chickens and eggs looked just like chickens and eggs from Earth. Though aside from what you found at food carts, no one was selling any sort of meat. Apparently all of that went through butcher shops because of city regulations.

_ I guess those don’t apply to live animals _ , she thought as she eyed the caged chickens.

She bought some fruit that would be easy snacks, but she’d wait to get any cooking ingredients until she actually had somewhere to cook.

* * * 

Since they had a bit of time left after Marit had checked out everything she could think of, Robyn and Eri gave her a bit of a tour of that area of the city on the way to meet up with Jonas and Dunn. It was nice to be able to build up a bit of a mental map, even if she’d need to wander around some more to actually memorise where everything was.

“Here we are! The Roast Quail!” Robyn proudly introduced where they were eating. The facade certainly looked the part of a fantasy-setting tavern.

“We have been going here since before Robyn joined us. It’s a favourite for many adventurers,” Eri explained. “Jonas and Dunn should be inside.”

Marit was glad the other two were able to keep track of time, even if she wasn’t sure how. She had noticed a clock on the wall at the guild, but hadn’t spotted any clock towers around town. Maybe she would be able to find a pocket watch or something, but it didn’t seem like Robyn or Eri had anything like that. It was probably worth asking about at some point.

The inside looked exactly like fantasy taverns she had seen in games or TV shows as well. Anything from the Elder Scrolls or the Witcher, to any number of anime. The low lighting, the wooden interior, the rowdy atmosphere, the look of the food, and the wooden tankards. Of course you couldn’t really get a feel for the smell when you only saw it through a screen, but the place lived up to its name. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they roasted everything they served.

And it looked like 100% of the clientele were adventurers. Everyone else might have ceded the place to them.

They made a beeline for Jonas and Dunn, leading Marit to guess that the group probably had a regular table. And a waitress was on them right away to take their order. She decided to let the others order for her, because she didn’t really know what to ask for, and she was reasonably certain she could eat anything they served her. She wasn’t as picky as she used to be when she was younger.

When their drinks arrived, Jonas proposed a toast.

“To Miss Marit! I’m sure her legend will grow soon enough!”

“You don’t have to take it that far…” Marit mumbled. She wasn’t used to being the centre of attention. Granted she would probably have to get used to it with how things had been going so far, but it felt different when it was from someone she knew, even if she’d only known them for a day. They were her first friends here, if she could be so bold as to think of them that way.

“Don’t worry, they did the same to me.” Robyn winked at her.

“And we were right.” Jonas kinda sounded like he had started drinking before they arrived. Or maybe he was always jolly when off the job.

Marit was served a roasted bird, presumably quail as the namesake of the tavern, with bread and some greens on the side. She’d only had boring, regular birds back home, namely chicken and turkey. Never even tried a duck. Whatever it was, it was pretty good.

She got the quick stories of the final two party members. Jonas had been born and raised in Durkandel, and had originally trained to be part of the guard, but decided he wanted to go outside the city, so he switched his plans to becoming an adventurer instead. He seemed like he was genuinely in it for the sense of adventure more than any of the others. Maybe that was an important quality in a leader.

Dunn used to be a hunter in a small village not too far from the city, and had become an adventurer to earn more money. A simple, understandable reason. The average villager probably didn’t have a lot to spare.

None of them had children, or any romantic partners they were willing to admit to. 

For her part, Marit recited the same story she had ended up telling Robyn and Eri, but she didn’t want to give more detail yet. Mostly because she hadn’t figured out more of it yet, but her excuse was that she didn’t want to bring down the mood, and could tell them more some other time.

They pivoted into telling her more about the sorts of adventures they’d been on, like the bandit job they’d been on when they first met; the time they had tracked down a bear that was stalking the road, and attacking travellers; and the first time they’d fought a monster: a goretusk. It was apparently like a giant boar, but with horns as well as tusks, and an especially tough hide. Dunn’s arrows had just bounced off of it. They’d had to rely on Eri’s magic to create a literal opening where they could hurt it. Jonas even took out his old shield to show the dents where the beast had rammed into it. It had nearly broken through. He could have had it fixed, but had decided he wanted it as a souvenir, and gotten a new shield instead.

Robyn told the story of how her first job as an adventurer was to remove a bird’s nest from a roof. The overly aggressive birds were harassing anyone who got close to the building, and no one was brave enough to do it themselves, so they posted a quest at the guild. Marit thought that sounded like an odd thing for an adventurer to do, but the other three weren’t making any indications it was a joke, so she didn’t actually say anything.

After a while when the food was gone, and they were largely out of words, so they broke up the celebration, and Marit headed back to the inn. She had some studying to do. A lot of studying.

* * * 

She had no idea how long she’d stayed up, or how late she had slept. It had been dark when she had gone to bed, and light when she got up, so it was probably still early, but when she went downstairs to get breakfast she found Robyn waiting for her.

“Good morning, Miss Marit.” It seemed like she had been chatting with Maybel about something, but Marit hadn’t caught a single word of it before she interrupted them.

“What are you doing here so early, Miss Robyn?” Not that she minded seeing her, it just felt a little odd.

“Distracting me is what she’s doing.” Maybel cut in, but she didn’t sound like she was actually annoyed.

Robyn ignored her. “Well, I promised I’d spar with ya, right?”

“Huh? Yes, but… already?”

“Our fearless leader said he wanted to spend the day with family, so we decided to take today off as well. Since I don’t know when next I’ll have time, I figured we might as well have our first go, yeah? Or aren’t ya ready?” She sounded teasing, but also strangely eager.

_ Fearless leader, huh? That’s what we used to call Nina too. _

“Fine, but let me get something to eat first.”  _ If we’re doing this it might be best to come back for a bath afterwards. _ “Just don’t expect too much.” It was uncertain if she even remembered how to adopt a stance without the transformation to help her out.

Breakfast consisted of a nice vegetable soup, and some fluffy bread. Robyn had some bread, butter, and eggs. Apparently she had waited to have breakfast so they could eat together, which made Marit feel a little happy. With how things had been back home lately, it had been a while since she’d had breakfast with anyone. She hadn’t even realised she had missed it.

When they headed outside, Robyn was walking with a purpose.

“So where are we going?” Marit noticed it was not out of the city.

“There’s a training ground connected to the adventurers’ guild. It’s right behind the building.”

She was starting to get a little nervous. Hopefully things would be okay.

The training ground was primarily a large open space with training dummies, targets, and a variety of practice weaponry. There were already several people present, either going up against the dummies, or each other. She didn’t see anyone working on the archery targets at the moment, but there was someone who was practising magic. There was a large rock that they were launching fire and ice at.

_ If they break something, do they have to pay for it? Or does the guild account for a bit of damage happening? _

The two of them found some wooden swords to spar with. She had been a little nervous that they’d have to use actual weapons, but of course not. While she had done sparring with actual metal weapons before, they had always been proofed in some way.

_ How do I do this again? _

She had realised the day before at the shop that holding a sword again after several years felt a bit weird, and that feeling was still there.

_ Of course I wouldn’t get over it that fast. _

“Ye’re looking a bit lost there, Miss Marit. Ya okay?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry.”  _ Let’s see... _

Adopting a stance felt oddly natural, even if she wasn’t entirely sure she was doing it correctly. Her old trainer would probably have a lot of criticisms.

“Ready?” Robyn had adopted a stance of her own, one Marit didn’t recognise. Though it made sense that a different world would have different styles of sword fighting. The basics were probably roughly the same.

“As I can be.”

Robyn took initiative, and the match started. The first strikes were more probing than serious, and Marit was able to meet them. She felt a bit sluggish, though. Her body wasn’t used to doing this.

_ It’s really been too long. _

Unfortunately she wasn’t getting too much time to adjust, as her opponent was rapidly escalating. It was getting tough just defending, and she couldn’t even see an opening to try to turn things around.

_ So fast. _

It wasn’t long until the sword was knocked from her poor, aching hands.

“I can tell ye’re not a complete rookie, but ya weren’t kidding about being out of practice, huh?”

“Unfortunately not.” She rubbed her right wrist, as that one stung the most.

“Alright. I’ll try to make it a good session for ya, then.”

Robyn seemed to realise that overwhelming Marit wouldn’t really teach her much, so she toned things down, but she still made Marit work for it.

_ I can’t land a single hit, and I’m mostly stuck on the defensive. _

Muscle memory was starting to wake up, if you could call it that, but even with a younger body she was no longer accustomed to moving that way. Meanwhile her opponent used her skills regularly, and had no such issues. There was a gulf there that she wasn’t currently able to cross, assuming she would ever be able to.

_ Maybe I won’t ever get there while not transformed. _

And maybe she didn’t really need to. But getting at least a little better than her current state was probably a good idea. Not to mention that she needed the workout. Her stamina was not great.

“Let’s take a break.”

Robyn was the one to call for it, but Marit wasn’t about to argue. She yearned to sit down for a bit, and take out one of her water canteens. Robyn sat down next to her. She didn’t seem like she was particularly out of breath, or sweaty.

“If this was all ya had, I’d say I was worried about yer adventuring future, but… this isn’t really yer true power, right?”

“Hm?”

“That magical girl thing I saw on yer card.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Can ya show me? I’m mighty curious.”

“Uh…” After going her whole life keeping it hidden from everyone except her teammates, the instinct to deny it was strong, but if she was really going to do this job, she was going to have to rely on her powers. Which meant showing other people what she could do. She felt very self-conscious about doing so with a bunch of strangers nearby, but that was something she would have to get over too.

_ Maybe this was Miss Robyn’s true goal all along. _

Perhaps it was as good a time as any for her debut. “Okay. I intended to show you sooner or later, so why not.” She got up, and stretched. “Just make sure to stand back.” She stepped into an open spot, and took her rod in hand.

_ Waves of blue, steer me true. _

While she was too embarrassed to say it out loud, and determined to learn to manage without, it still helped to think it. The magic responded, and enveloped her. To everyone around there was a brief flash of light, and then Marit stood there transformed, her long, blue hair flooding down her back.

“Wow…” Robyn was staring. “Ye’re… stunning.” 

Marit could feel her face heat up. “W-where did that come from?” She still hadn’t checked herself in the mirror while transformed, so she wasn’t entirely sure what she looked like as an adult magical girl. 

“Ah, sorry, but… how did ya…”

“Magic.”

“Right, that makes sense, but I meant more like… where did ya get… that?”

“I… um… I was chosen… by the gods…” That was what she had told Verona as well, but it felt a bit silly to say it.  _ Maybe I should have come up with something else. _

“Huh… does that make ya an angel?”

“W-what?” That was like a terrible pickup line, which was bad enough, but it sounded sincere enough that it made Marit quite flustered. She wanted to protest, but couldn’t really find the words. Not that she really knew what this world’s concept of angels was like in the first place.

“Sorry… sorry.” You could see Robyn pulling herself together. “So, uh, what can ya do now?”

“Well, I’m stronger. Faster. Better reflexes. Can use a bit of magic.”

“Oh? So if we spar now, things might go different?”

“Yes, but that might be a bit unfair…”

“Oh really?” Robyn raised an eyebrow. “Them’s fighting words, Miss Marit.”

“Uh…” Marit had sincerely meant that regular people likely stood no chance against a magical girl, but in hindsight she could see how that might sound provocative. And in fairness, she didn’t know how strong the adventurers of this world could become. It was probably more unfair to underestimate Robyn. “Alright.” She picked up her practice sword. Only one way to find out.

They got into position, and there was barely a second’s pause before Robyn leapt into action. Marit blocked her attack. It felt like it had been slower than before, even though she knew better. She was simply faster. It was like she could feel the trajectory of every incoming attack, and her sword automatically moved to meet them. She could even counter, though Robyn was able to block her attacks as well. But not forever. The longer they kept going, the more she was able to read her opponent, and disarm her just as she herself had been disarmed earlier.

“Ow…” Robyn shook her hand.

“Ah, sorry! Was I too rough?”

“Nah, I’ve had worse. I just wasn’t really expecting… ye’re like a completely different person, Miss Marit.”

“That is the idea, yes. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to fight- uh. Nevermind.” The monsters she and the others had fought were beyond what mortal weaponry could handle, so they needed their magical powers and weapons to stand up against them. This world had its own monsters, but she wondered if her old enemies were among them. Probably not. Since this world already had magic, it was probably better prepared to deal with them than modern Earth was, and they might avoid it for that very reason.

“Hm. Do ya mind if we keep going?” Robyn picked up her sword. “I feel like I might learn something.”

_ Aren’t we here to train me? Ah well. I don’t know how long I can maintain this form at current, but if I don’t use any magic I can probably go for a little while. I suppose I can still work out on my own time. _

They went back at it. Marit tried to hold back similarly to how Robyn had done for her, but since Robyn seemed to be going all-out, her reactions came without her really thinking about it. Her opponent got disarmed again, but still wanted to keep going. It happened again. And then one more time where the wooden sword finally broke.

“Okay… I yield…” Robyn was breathing heavy.

Marit was relieved, as she had started to worry about how much longer she could stay transformed. She felt a little wary about revealing such an obvious weakness as suddenly losing her powers after a while. Especially considering the audience that had shown up. Everyone in the training ground had drifted over to watch, and more people had come in from the guild. Even Verona was in the crowd.

_ I didn’t think we’d draw this much attention. This is a bit embarrassing. _

“We should do this again sometime!”

“Um… did you forget we were supposed to train  _ me _ ?”

Robyn gave her a funny look. “Why do you need that when you have that thing?”

Marit sighed. They could talk more about it later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> January is approaching its end, and my brain is starting to feel like it's stirring again. This is pretty much always my off month, as December takes a lot out of my energy reserves, and I need to recharge afterwards. This hasn't exactly been the calmest January I've ever experienced though. But I'm looking forward to Atelier Ryza 2 next Friday. That should hopefully give me some respite.
> 
> As for the story, I don't have a lot of new commentary. In spite of how little actually happens in contrast to the amount of words used, I still sometimes wonder if I'm hurrying certain bits along. Particularly how quickly Marit becomes comfortable about transforming around other people. I suppose we'll see how the readers feel in upcoming chapters.


	7. The First Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit studies some of the books she bought, and then goes on her first quest.

Even though she didn’t expend a lot of physical stamina while transformed, it had caught up to her when she returned to normal, not to mention the magical exertion as well. So heading right into the bath when she got back to the inn was heavenly.

Thankfully Robyn was understanding about parting ways after their little exhibition match. She probably wanted to clean up too.

Marit’s plan for the rest of the day was honestly to keep studying. She hadn’t truly realised how much material there was until she had sat down with it the night before. At the very least she wanted to feel like she had a grasp on the basics.

The world map was as lacking in details as she had feared, if not worse. It really only showed the neighbouring nations with any clarity, and even that wasn’t perfect. While the nations were named, there wasn’t a lot within their borders. Not even the capital city was shown for all of them. There was some indication of what lay beyond them, like there looked to be an ocean further east, and a long mountain range to the north, but details were slim. Cross-referencing it with other material gave her a clearer picture of the surrounding nations. 

The map put the kingdom of Vanefar in the centre, which was where Durkandel was, all the way on the eastern border. Directly east and south-east of Vanefar were two orc nations. While there was currently peace between orcs and humans, it was an uneasy one as old tensions were slow to fade away. A neutral zone had been established between them where old battlefields had been, to give them a place to meet for diplomatic relations.

To the north-east was a goblin nation, who were sympathetic to the orcs, at least according to the books that humans had written, even though they had apparently stayed out of the most recent wars. It had been nearly a hundred years since the last big war, and about fifty since the latest skirmish that resulted in a cease-fire which eventually led to the current peace treaty.

North and south of Vanefar were two other human nations who were generally allied, but seemed to prefer to stay out of each other’s business as much as possible. Apparently there was some religious tension with the nation to the north, and the one to the south was more occupied with their own southern border where an alliance of lizardfolk and naga were giving them trouble. That sounded like someplace she would like to visit eventually, honestly. She wanted to see more races with her own eyes.

Directly west was a dwarven nation, and while it wasn’t really shown on the map, there was apparently yet another nation of dwarves further west. The only details she was really able to find about it was that there were some ideological differences between the two of them. About dwarves in general it was said that they liked to travel all over, remaining neutral with all races, and just going wherever they figured they could find work. They were generally welcomed by all for their skills and work ethic.

To the north-west, and sharing just a tiny bit of border with Vanefar, was an elven nation. Apparently they didn’t wander much, and preferred to keep to their own territory, which was quite large. They looked to be the largest single nation on the map. But they were typically hospitable to strangers, even if outsiders might find it a little hard to fit in. Still, in general there were probably more humans and dwarves living in elven lands than elves in other lands. The books briefly mentioned other elven nations that weren’t shown on the map.

_ World map, my ass. I guess the shopkeep warned me. _

To the south-west was less a traditional nation, and rather an alliance of different smaller states. Humans, elves, dwarves, and possibly more united under a ruling council with representatives from each state, but they were generally autonomous unless something required joint action. The book was a little vague on what all the member states actually were. Maybe she could find something more detailed, but that probably wasn’t a priority unless she planned to go there, or curiosity got the best of her.

Further west of that there was supposedly a vast forest that was the domain of the fae, but the books she had did not say a lot about them beyond their existence, and even that sounded more like myth than fact. She definitely wanted to ask at the bookstore if they had any more information about that. It was far away, but she absolutely wanted to go there one day. Though if the fae here were anything like the myths back home, it might not be particularly safe for mortals to wander into their territory.

This sounded like a world worth exploring. The problem was getting around. As far as she could tell the fastest means of travel they had was horses. If there was anything else, she hadn’t found mention of it so far. Surely if magical carriages, airships, or something like that existed they would have been brought up, but maybe they were so common everyone took it for granted that everyone else knew about them. Or maybe not.

There was also the question of how accurate these books were. Everything was basically just its own source, and likely not peer-reviewed. Hopefully she could find out for herself eventually. For now it was probably best to simply get used to this world, and let her powers grow. She could learn more along the way. 

* * *

The next day Marit decided it was time to find her first quest, and headed over to the guild. Verona had said she had a month to get started, but she didn’t need that long. Though the quest boards weren’t exactly what she had expected. The beginner board especially.

Lost pet. Bouncer needed. Heavy lifting required. Fill in for warehouse guard. Clear brush. Clean property. Get medicinal herbs. Pick berries. Hunt deer. Pest extermination. And more.

_ These don’t sound like jobs for adventurers, these are just chores. Why are they on here? Mending a fence? What? And how big are these pests that they need an adventurer to take care of them? Is this a temp agency? _

Maybe Robyn’s story about removing a bird nest was true. The novice board looked a little more like what she had expected with wanted posters for criminals, quests to hunt dangerous animals, and bodyguard duty for travellers, merchants, and the like. But there were still plenty of chores too.

_ More lost pets. Are these ones harder to find? And these criminals… theft, burglary, tax evasion… not stuff I personally want to hunt people down for. Not that I have the skill to track anything down anyway. _

That seemed to be a big factor in a lot of these. Many things required specific skill sets. If the boards always looked like this maybe that was what Verona had meant by how it helped the guild to have a lot of low-ranked adventurers around. This didn’t seem like particularly dangerous work, but it could probably provide a steady income for those who didn’t have the aptitude or desire to push into the higher ranks. 

The beginner and novice boards were situated close to one another, probably because they were both open to all adventurers as soon as they joined, but she could see three other boards in the room that were probably for higher ranks. Of all of them the beginner board looked like it was the biggest one, but in spite of its larger size it was still stuffed full of notices. There were some gaps where other adventurers had presumably picked up their jobs for the day, but there was still plenty left to choose from. She grabbed one of them to go ask Verona more about it.

“Miss Verona, is this common work for adventurers?”

“Hm? Yes, quite so. The city and surrounding settlements ask for our help with all sorts of things.”

“I see… not exactly what I envision when I think of ‘adventure’, though.”

“I understand what you mean, Miss Marit, but it’s important for the guild to maintain good relations with the populace. It’s part of our creed. And that includes more than just exciting jobs. Not to mention that doing jobs like this builds a positive reputation for the adventurers themselves. That can even lead to personal requests for them to do certain tasks.”

_ Are you sure that it doesn’t just let people feel like they can treat us however they want? _ She didn’t say that out loud, though.  _ Come to think of it, I guess RPGs, MMOs in particular, tend to have a lot of busywork quests. _ “What if there are jobs I’m not sure how to do?”

“Well, the obvious answer would be to pick something else, but of course you can cooperate with others, and form parties. If there are any particular skills you are looking for in a partner you can always ask me if you don’t want to ask around the room. That also means I might send someone your way if I think that’s the best fit, but you aren’t obligated to say yes if you would prefer not to.”

“Okay…”  _ So if I can’t track myself, I can find someone else able to do it? I can’t imagine anyone would want to team up for a lost pet though, that seems like an easy one-person job if you have the ability. But I’ll keep that in mind in case I want to go hunt something. _

“So do you want to take this job?”

“Uh…” Marit had barely looked at it when she grabbed it off the board. It was the one that said something about heavy lifting.

“Normally I’d suggest three or four people for this, but with your power I think you could handle it alone, Miss Marit.”

_ You already have that sort of expectation of me? _

* * *

Marit ended up accepting the quest, and followed the directions Verona had given her to the job location. When she arrived she found a bunch of burly men, and some women, working with a lot of crates. Quite a lot.

_ No wonder they asked for help. _

She approached one who looked like he was overseeing the others.

“Excuse me.”

“What?” He turned around to look at her. And then up at her. “W-wha- who are you?!” He sported a full, black beard, and sharp brown eyes that currently looked a bit startled. His outburst had drawn the attention of a few of the others nearby as well.

“I’m an adventurer, and I’m here about the job.”

“Y-you are? Uh…” He visibly pulled himself together. “I mean, just you?” He was clearly looking behind her to see if he had missed someone. If he felt dubious about a single tall, thin girl showing up, she couldn’t really blame him.

“Miss Verona thought I could handle it on my own.”

“Really?” He didn’t seem very reassured. “Well, if Miss Verona says so… the name’s Winston.”

“I’m Marit. Nice to meet you, Mister Winston.”

“Sure.” He scratched the back of his head. “See all these crates? They need to be loaded into the warehouse. That includes the ones still on the carts. There’s a guy named Ronte inside who will tell you where to put them. Got it?”

“Got it.” She might as well get started right away, so she placed her hand on the rod. She still felt awkward about transforming in front of people, but she needed to practice that too. Hopefully she had enough magic power to get it all done. There was a flash of light as she transformed, and a collective gasp was heard across the yard.

“W-wh-wha-” Winston was staring at her again, and after a long moment he asked: “Are you a magic knight, Miss?”

“Uh…”  _ So he’s heard of them? _ “N… um… something like that.” Based on what Verona had told her, that seemed like a simpler thing to say than trying to explain the difference.

“W-well.” He cleared his throat. “Just know that we’re not going to pay you any extra just because of that.”

“Huh? That’s… fine?” She wasn’t sure why he thought that meant he’d have to pay extra. 

He nodded. “You can start with those over there.” He pointed towards a cluster of crates.

“Yes sir, Mister Winston.”

There were different sizes of crates, and while she didn’t have a measuring tape, she could make an estimate of their sizes. Most of them were in a 2 x 2 x 1 ratio. The smaller ones looked about 50 x 50 x 25 centimetres, the middle ones about 100 x 100 x 50, and the larger ones about 150 x 150 x 75. She might be a little off, and they didn’t all look uniform, like some were 2 x 1 x 1, some were cube-shaped, and some irregular ones, but that seemed roughly correct.

_ The larger ones will have to go on the bottom when stacked, so I should probably start with those. Let’s check how heavy they are… yeah, no problem. I could probably carry more than one, but it would probably make it hard to see. I’ll start with one at a time, and think about my options. _

She tried to ignore how everyone was staring at her while she was sorting the crates a little. Though she could hear them chatting.

“Is that really a magic knight?”

“Why is one of them an adventurer, aren’t they all like royal guards or something?”

“I’ve heard the Marquis has one.”

“Is the thing with the hair normal?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never actually seen one before.”

“I expected something that looked more like… you know, armour.”

“I think it’s cute.”

“Maybe it’s elf magic.”

She was able to find a position where she could mostly see in front of her while carrying a large crate, and hurried inside with it. This was going to take a while, so it was best to not waste any time. Not that she was a stranger to tedious work. Spreadsheets were hardly exciting, and even before she had started her regular job she had worked part-time retail while going through school. They’d had those jacks to move stuff of this size, though.

“Excuse me, Mister Ronte?” She called out in general as she got inside, hoping the right person would answer.

“Ye...s?” A large man with a moustache and a bald head turned to look at her. His eyes grew wide. He didn’t look all that much shorter than her, actually. 5-10 cms difference maybe. So there were at least some people who approached her height.

“Where should I put this?” She did her best to act nonchalant.

“Um… o-over there.”

“Got it.”

She went back to get another crate, and kept doing roundtrips until all the large ones were gone, then started on the medium ones, trying to do them in declining size. The rest of the workers had started moving again, but they were spending so much time watching her that she started to wonder if her presence was more disruptive than helpful. 

_ I should really find a more effective means to carry these. Maybe if I carry them over my head, I’d be able to do two at a time? _

That was maybe not necessary for the smaller crates, but when she got to more large ones she could try it out. At the pace she was going it didn’t take terribly long to finish up the first pile she had been assigned to, and with a look of disbelief Winston pointed her to another one.

It looked much like the first one. She was a little curious what was actually inside them, but it wasn’t really her place to ask. More importantly she had more large crates to test her idea of carrying two at once. Conceivably she could stack them even higher, but balance was a real factor. If the ones further up started sliding, she’d have a hard time saving them. And she couldn’t stack them so high they didn’t fit through the door anyway.

She lined two crates up so she could get one hand under each, then lifted them up. Letting them lean against each other helped, and for the rest she used a little bit of magical manipulation to keep them steady. If she finished the job faster, then she was free to use a bit of extra energy. So long as it evened out, or she maybe even gained a little more than she used, it was fine.

It had occurred to her that maybe the rod could help. Since it could form any weapon, perhaps she could get it to form other things too. Like maybe a harness that would let her stack things up on her back, and keep them steady that way. The problem was that it might use a lot of energy. More than she could afford in her current state, at least. Once she was done she could go right back to the inn, and have a nap.

_ Ignore the staring. Ignore the staring. Ignore the staring. _

It was tough to not feel self-conscious about all the wide-eyed looks. 

She got all the large crates moved inside, and then the medium ones. Though as she started to stack the smaller crates on top of one another, a wave of dizziness came over her. She nearly stumbled, and just barely managed to set the crate she was holding down without dropping it. Her transformation dropped, and she had to sit down.

“A-are you okay, Miss Marit?” She saw Winston come running over towards her.

“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to leave a bad impression on her first job. “I just need a short break.”

“Oh. Of course. Take your time.”

“Thank you.”

“Um… when you’re done with this, do you think you could handle unloading that cart over there?”

She looked over towards where he pointed, and saw a loaded cart that it didn’t seem like anyone had touched yet. “Yes, sure.”

He left her alone, and she took a water canteen out of her bag, draining quite a lot of it in one go. A sudden hunger was making itself known as well.

_ Should I have had more for breakfast? _

She had the fruit she had bought for snacks, but she wanted something more substantial. Maybe it was time to take the chance on opening another of the lunchboxes. And it probably made sense to go for the one she worried about the most. She figured Green had probably done a good job, and Pink and Yellow she had some faith in, but Red… well, Blue’s hadn’t been terrible, just a little misguided, so whatever Red had put together was probably perfectly edible.

When she took out the red box, she could feel it was warm. Upon opening it she was met with something very different from Blue’s. Meatballs, and… crushed tomatoes? Was that meant to be tomato sauce? It was clearly just crushed tomatoes with nothing else, though. Which made her a little dubious about the meatballs too. At least she had some utensils in her bag, so she extracted a fork, and took a bite.

_ Yup. This is just made from 100% ground beef. Probably beef. No flour, no milk, no oil, nothing but ground meat shaped into balls. Covered in tomato pulp and juices. At least they’re cooked all the way through, and still warm. _

She truly appreciated the thought behind these lunches. They had clearly tried. They had the right idea. But like with Blue’s ‘sandwiches’, it was clear Red didn’t fully grasp the concept. It still felt great at the moment. Something warm and protein-rich was kinda perfect. Perhaps ‘perfect’ was a strong word.

After finishing about half the box, she placed it back into the bag, so the rest wouldn’t go cold. It might not be her meal of choice if she actually had choices, but these boxes did seem like they were handy for emergencies. They would run out soon enough, but if she cleaned them, she could make her own lunches to put inside. Once she had access to a kitchen.

_ I should really think about finding a more permanent place to live. Perhaps all this gold I was given is enough to buy a place, so I won’t have to worry about rent either. _

She knew she should be careful about her spending, but that could come after she was established. It didn’t help that she still didn’t really have any idea about the worth of money in this world. Her studying had confirmed her suspicion that 1 gold was 100 silver, and 1 silver was 100 copper. But without a good insight into the cost of things, that didn’t really tell her much. At least she had a source of income.

Speaking of, she should get back to it. She wasn’t sure how long she had spaced out there, but she felt ready to keep going.

Since it was just a bunch of small crates left in her current pile it didn’t take her many trips to get those stowed inside, and then there was the matter of the cart. Honestly this was a multi-person job. At least one person in the cart, handing stuff to at least one person on the ground. She could probably ask someone to push stuff off the cart onto her to speed things up, but maybe there was an even faster way. 

_ What if I just take the whole cart inside, and unload it there? _

It probably wouldn’t be much trouble to pull it, but manoeuvring was a different issue. So it might be easier to just get underneath, locate the centre of gravity, and lift. 

_ There we go. Though this would probably kill my back if the magic didn’t protect me from stuff like that. It would be bad if the transformation gave out while I was under here, though. _

“Make way! Coming through!”

People were staring with their mouths hanging open as the entire wooden cart loaded with crates was carried inside on the back of a magical girl.

“W-w-what?!”

Marit lowered the cart down, and crawled out from under it while Ronte was staring at her in shock.

“I figured it would be faster for me to unload it in here. Don’t worry, I’ll take the cart back outside afterwards.”

Though he looked kinda shaken, he still directed her as to where the crates were supposed to go. Then she lifted the unburdened cart back outside, taking care to not bump into anyone on the way.

“Um, Miss Marit?”

“Yes, Mister Winston?”

He addressed her as she got back outside.

“Do you think you could move this other cart inside as well? And then come with me? The others can handle unloading it, so there’s something else I’d like to ask of you in the meantime.”

There was another mostly untouched cart he was referring to, so she dealt with that, and then followed him out a different set of doors to the side of the warehouse. Where a giant crate sat.

“Normally we would crack this open and unload it bit by bit, but… um… is it possible for you to move the whole thing inside? If it is too much, then don’t worry about it, we’ll just do it the normal way.”

“I’ll… have a look at it.”

_ This is like a shipping container. How did it get here in the first place? The obvious answer is magic. Even if it was on wheels, which it isn’t, I don’t know how many horses or oxen it would take to pull something like this. So something else must have dropped it off. _

She tried pushing it a little, and it budged. So she should be able to lift it. The problem was the structural integrity. Her arms were simply not long enough to actually get a grip on it, aside from a corner, and if she lifted that way she’d more likely tear that side off rather than lift the container. At least the bottom of it was raised slightly off the ground, as if it had some supports underneath it was sitting on, which was the same deal as with the large crates she’d carried earlier. So with a bit of magical manipulation she should be able to carry the whole thing at once.

“I have an idea. But I’ll need you to direct me, Mister Winston. It will be hard for me to tell whether I’m about to bump into anything.”

“Oh. Yes, of course. I’ll do my best.”

With her back to the container she crouched down, placed her hands underneath the edge, and employed magic to spread out her power. That should provide an even lift across the whole bottom. She stood back up, and the giant crate raised up with her. Even though he had been the one to ask, Winston still gasped at the sight.

“Hup! Now just keep an eye on the sides so I don’t crash into the building or anything else.”

While she could make a guess at how wide she was, all she could really see was in front of her. The container loomed in her peripheral vision, but it was really hard to judge how far out it stretched. With Winston’s directions they got it inside without incident, and stowed into an empty corner of the warehouse.

“You are something else, Miss Marit. I have never seen the like.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Even though it made sense that he wouldn’t have, she still felt a little embarrassed about the praise.

“I’d heard magic knights were strong, but I never imagined something like this.”

“Then why ask me to move this?” She patted the side of the giant container.

“I… uh… wanted to see if you could.” He sounded a bit sheepish.

“Ah. Heh.”

_ What would Blue think about me using my powers to act like a forklift? _

It wasn’t like any of the Council were there to tell her what to do any longer. Even if she kinda wished they were.

_ Are they able to see me, even if they can’t contact me? I guess it’s impossible to know. Besides they still have to watch over whomever the current magical girls are. _

After they had all retired, they hadn’t gotten to meet any of the girls succeeding them, nor had they met the ones who had been before them. Aside from the fact that there had been others, and would be more, all they had known was each other.

Unless the monsters ran out, or they were able to stop them at the source, the duty to battle them as they came would remain. Maybe one of the future teams would put a final end to the threat, but Marit’s team hadn’t been able to.

“Are elven magical armours especially strong, maybe?” Winston’s voice shook her out of her thoughts.

“Oh. Uh. Ah. I’m… actually human.”

“You’re joking! … not joking? But you’re so…”

“Tall, yeah, I know. I’ve been hearing that a lot since I came here. I’m from far up north. We’re generally taller there.” The story became easier to tell every time, and it was maybe too easy to slip in extra little details. Hopefully it wouldn’t get her in trouble at some point.

“Huh, how about that? Guess there’s still a lot I’m not aware of in this world.” He rubbed his beard.

_ You and me both. _

By the time they had finished their chat, the others had mostly unloaded the cart, so Marit could help with the last little bit before carrying the cart back outside. There was a third cart, but it was almost empty, so they didn’t need her to carry the whole thing inside. There were still a couple of piles of crates around the yard though, so Marit thought she’d be asked to start on one of those, but Winston had other plans. Now that he’d seen how strong she was, there were other large objects he would like her help to move around to more convenient locations.

First there was a loading crane that wasn’t set up correctly. And a large stack of scaffolding they hadn’t found time to move inside. And a large smelting pot they hadn’t been able to load onto a cart thanks to the faulty crane. And actually they also had an empty shipping container out back they wanted to move into a better position to be picked up.

She was still curious what was dropping these containers off, and what was coming to pick them back up.

“Okay, anything- whoa~.” Another wave of dizziness hit her just after she had put down the empty container, much stronger than the previous one. She fell to her hands and knees, and reverted to normal Marit.

“M-Miss Marit?!”

“I’m sorry…” She said in an unsteady voice. “I think I’ve used up all my magical energy.” Maybe she shouldn’t admit that, but she wasn’t able to come up with a lie on the spot. She started pushing herself up, and received a helping hand. As she looked up she noticed Winston wasn’t the only one there any longer. Several of the others had come over too. “I can come back tomorrow for the rest.” Honestly she wasn’t sure if one day was enough to recover everything, but a night’s sleep should probably take care of it. Most of it.

“Uh… no. There’s no need for that. We can handle what’s left.”

“Huh?”

“Give me your card, and I’ll mark the quest as complete.”

“... okay.” She wasn’t really in shape to protest, so she took the guild card out from her bag, and handed it over to Winston. He reached into a pouch on his belt, and took out a curious-looking green crystal, which he then touched to the card. There was a brief glow, and then he handed the card back. Marit took it, and then tested her ability to stand. She felt very tired, but at least she was steady.

“Oh, and here.” Winston handed her three silver coins. “You were a big help. Thank you.”

“Oh. Sure.” She had almost been about to walk away without even thinking about payment. “Thank you too, Mister Winston.” It wasn’t a lot compared to her hoard, or even how much she’d spent, but it was her first pay. Maybe you couldn’t expect more from a day’s work at beginner level.

They even offered to have one of them walk her home, though she declined, saying she was fine to make it on her own. They didn’t have to worry that much. Or maybe they did, but she would be fine. Probably. Not being at her full power really sucked. She’d need to train her magical stamina as well as her physical one. Even if she wasn’t sure how. She could sleep on it.

_ A nap sounds great right now, actually. I’ll just head back to the inn before I go back to the guild. _

She only stumbled a little on the way there. As soon as she was in her room she fell right onto the bed, and immediately blacked out, just like her first night there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one became a little longer than usual, since I had to reach a good ending point.
> 
> I binged a lot of Atelier Ryza 2 this weekend, so didn't have a lot of time to work on other things, but I'm trying to balance things a little better again.


	8. Tinkerer and Herbs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit attempts to acquire a watch, and teams up for a quest to gather some herbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some alterations to the measurements in the previous chapter, since the more I thought about it, the more it didn't feel quite right.

When she woke back up it was still daylight outside, so she couldn’t have slept for very long. She figured she’d still feel out of it, but she actually felt pretty good. Quite good, even. Maybe a little gross from sleeping fully clothed, and very hungry, but otherwise much better than expected. Hopefully Maybel was serving dinner soon, or was even willing to let her eat something outside of regular mealtimes. She could use her newly earned money as a bribe.

Maybel looked up as Marit came down the stairs. “Good morning, Miss Marit.”

“Good… morning?”  _ What? _

“I see you’re up early today. Breakfast is just about to start.”

“Breakfast?”  _ Is she pulling my leg? Or did I actually sleep an entire day? _

“Isn’t that why you came down? Are you going out without?”

“Um, no, yes, I mean… thank you, Miss Maybel.” 

They were indeed serving the breakfast menu. There was no way they were doing this to prank her, especially as other guests were also showing up to eat.

_ I really need to find some way to tell the time. Maybe I should have asked if I could take my smartphone along just to tell the time. Though a wristwatch would have probably been a better idea. They last forever. _

She felt absolutely famished, and managed to wolf down a whole omelette, a bit of fried meat, and three bread rolls with jam. It required a bit of negotiating with Kiki. She pointed out that she hadn’t shown up for dinner the day before, so surely she was owed a little extra for breakfast. She had just barely gotten away with it. 

Since fruit and berries were commonplace in the area, it was only natural that they would make jam, but she had noticed it was less sweet than she was used to back home. She didn’t really mind, it was just a curiosity, but it was enough to make her look into it. She had discovered that sugar wasn’t exactly cheap around here, nor were other sweeteners like honey. While it was cheaper than sugar, honey was still a bit costly to obtain. As she had never tried making jam, she didn’t know how well honey mixed into it. Her mother had just used sugar. So most jam here relied solely on the ingredients’ natural sweetness. 

After breakfast she managed to secure a spot in the blessed bath before heading to the guild. She needed to report her first successful quest completion. Even if it was more like a temp job than a quest.

“Good morning, Miss Marit.”

“Good morning, Miss Verona.”  _ Does she ever take days off? Isn’t this the fourth day in a row I’ve seen her here? _ Marit hadn’t gotten to know the other receptionists much yet, since it had so far been easier to go to Verona every time.

“I had expected you would report back yesterday.”

“Uh, no, I had to… take care of something. Is there a rush?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. But Hinfrid said that Mister Winston had shown up yesterday evening to ask how you were doing. Seems like he was worried he had pushed you too hard.”

“Huh?”

“When he heard you hadn’t shown up, he’d gotten even more worried. I’ll make sure to send him a message.”

“Oh…” She felt a little bad about that.

“He also wanted us to up the reward for the quest due to everything you’d done.”

“The reward?” Marit was confused. Hadn’t she already gotten it?

“Well, they couldn’t really offer more money, but he thought you deserved more merit points for the work you’d done. Speaking of, what did you do? You must have really impressed them.”

“I… uh… moved around some big stuff they had.”

“How big?” Verona looked intrigued.

“Well… the biggest were probably that shipping crate, and the loading crane.”

“Oh my.” Verona’s eyebrows raised slightly. “I see. I guess I was right to send you over there, except… you are okay, right?”

Marit nodded. “I feel great after getting some sleep.” Almost suspiciously so.

“That’s good. Oh right, your card, please.”

Marit handed it over.

“I’m not sure if Mister Winston told Hinfrid everything, but regardless we can’t just upgrade a quest from beginner to novice that easily, even if it might be deserved. It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare, and since this was your very first job that also weighs against you. But we were able to accommodate him slightly, and give you 50% extra merit. If you keep that up, I’m sure you’ll reach novice in no time.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Marit had no idea how many merit points she needed to rank up, nor had she actually checked if the poster had said how many the quest was worth. 

“And here’s your pay.” Verona placed six silver coins on the counter.

“Huh?” Marit blinked. “But…”

“I know it’s a little more than usual for a beginner quest, but they probably expected at least two or three people, so it would have been split among them. Since you did it on your own, you get all of it. That’s also why they couldn’t offer any more.”

“Oh.”  _ So the three silver he gave me yesterday wasn’t the actual pay? What happened to not being able to pay me extra, Mister Winston? _

“And since you made such a good impression, it’s possible they’ll ask for you by name next time!” Verona seemed like she was even prouder than Marit. “So what would you like to do today, Miss Marit? It’s still early enough that the best quests have not been snagged yet.”

“Before that, do you know if there’s anywhere I can buy a timepiece?”

“A… timepiece?” Verona gave her a confused look.

“You know, a device that tells you the time? That you can carry with you? Like a pocket-sized clock?”

“Uh… well, we got our clock made at the tinkerer’s workshop, but I’m not sure about a pocket-sized one… I suppose you could ask them?”

* * *

The tinkerer’s workshop was located in the middle ring, and she wasn’t sure if that was a bad sign or not. It did mean that it would be Marit’s first trip there. The guards at the gate didn’t give her any trouble, just some funny looks, and then she was through.

It was immediately obvious that this was a higher class area. The buildings looked fancier, as did the people walking in the street, not to mention the carriages. The main street was still lined with shops, restaurants, and such, but they looked posher than the ones in the outer ring. While it all  _ looked  _ very nice, it had an aura that felt less outsider-friendly. She certainly didn’t feel like she fit in, and everyone was staring at her. Actually, that part wasn’t so different from the outer ring. People were still not used to seeing her, so she got stares wherever she went, and she wasn’t quite used to it yet.

She checked her map, probably looking like a wide-eyed tourist, and confirmed that she still had a ways to go. The workshop was little off main street, though based on where Verona had pointed, it should be along another reasonably large street.

_ If I turn here… yes. Oh! That’s a nice scent. _

It smelled like coffee. She hadn’t been sure if they had it in this world, since she had only found tea in the outer ring. Honestly she preferred drinking tea over coffee anyway, but coffee had a very nice smell. It also made her think of chocolate.

_ Ugh, no, focus. _

She pointedly continued down the street, and it didn’t take her too long to reach the place. Honestly the window-display looked like a goldsmith. Which made sense. Even back home goldsmiths tinkered with a lot of things. Soft metals, precious metals, gems, stuff with small pieces… 

Opening the door made a bell jingle pleasantly, similar to the bookstore. As far as she could see there were currently three people inside. A well-dressed gentleman who looked like he was being attended to by a younger man. At a guess she would say the younger man worked here, since there was something about him that screamed assistant, or apprentice. And the third person was sitting on a chair behind the counter, indeed tinkering with something.

“Yes? May I help you?”

A woman with greying hair and sharp features turned to look at Marit as she approached the counter. Her blue eyes betrayed no surprise at Marit’s appearance, and her tone sounded more like ‘why are you interrupting me’ than ‘welcome, customer’. 

“Yes, I was wondering if you sell timepieces?”

“Timepieces?”

“A small device that tells the time. One I can carry around. Preferably pocket-sized.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “That’s an unusual request. Especially from someone of your… anyway, I don’t have any.”

“Oh.” Then how did most people tell the time in this world? Did they just know by the position of the sun? An innate instinct? Sure, there were clocks around here and there, but it didn’t seem like most people had access to them.

“But I can craft one.”

“Oh?”

“A custom-job like that is not going to be cheap though.” She didn’t seem convinced that Marit could afford it, which was fair. She wasn’t exactly dressed high-class.

“That’s fine. Name your price.”

“Five gold.”

“Uh…”  _ No hesitation, huh? _ “I don’t suppose I could convince you to go a little lower?” That was 500 silver, and while she was still figuring out the value of money in this world, she had basically been told by Verona that earning 2-3 silver per quest was pretty much standard for low-rank adventurers. She had gotten 9 under exceptional circumstances. Which wasn’t even 2% percent of what this lady was asking.

“No haggling.” A short and firm response.

_ I guess not. Maybe if I had been a regular customer, but she doesn’t know me. _ “Alright.” The convenience of having a watch outweighed her concerns about being careful with her money. It seemed like she had a lot, but she wasn’t certain of that, or how quickly it could disappear. But not being able to tell the time was bothering her far more. So she pulled five gold coins out of her bag, and placed them on the counter. The first time she’d taken anything from that pile. They were larger than they looked like at first glance. 

The woman got up. On her head she had a mount with several different lenses that she could lower down over her eyes. Probably an invaluable tool in her trade. And she used one of them to examine one of the gold coins.

“Okay. I’ll take three as a deposit. Come back in three days, and pay the rest then.” Her tone was still very business-like, but it sounded less sharp than it had before. Showing that she actually had money probably eased her suspicions. “And sign here.” She had taken out some sort of sheet. A receipt perhaps?

Marit took the offered quill, dipped it lightly in the ink, and signed on the line.

The woman took the sheet, looked at it, and nodded. “Remember. Three days, Miss Hovik.”

“Got it. Thank you.”

As she headed out, she noticed the other two people in the store were watching her. Maybe they had been watching that whole exchange. Oh well. It seemed like she needed to make sure she was in town for the next three days. The tinkerer lady didn’t seem like one who approved of delays. She had sort of wanted to take a quest that would take her out of the city, but that would have to wait.

* * *

When she got back to the guild, she found the quest board was more plucked than it had been before. She ended up taking a cleaning job that only lasted a couple of hours. Didn’t even need to transform. It wasn’t exciting, but a quest was a quest. 

For the rest of the day she had done more exploring and walking around. Her mental map of that area of the outer ring was getting stronger.

The next morning she was back at the guild, since she didn’t really have anything else she wanted to take care of at the moment. She still had more books to read, but she didn’t feel like spending her whole day on that.

_ This really is more like temp jobs than adventuring. I do understand the necessity of it, but I’d like something a little more exciting today. Maybe the novice board? _

She didn’t particularly want to hunt down criminals though, at least not for small crimes like these. The worst was a robber, but even that could be chalked up to desperate people feeling like they had no other choice. Not that she had any confidence she’d be able to find them even if she wanted to catch them.

That seemed to be a recurring issue with a lot of the quests on the board. She had no idea how to find a lot of what they asked for. In that sense staying in the city and just doing jobs at places with proper addresses was what suited her best.

_ Maybe I was too hasty in my desire to be an adventurer. I’m not really the best equipped. _

The pest extermination poster was still there. Or maybe it was another one. Fighting rats in a basement was certainly very RPG-esque, but did they really have rats or other vermin big enough that it required an adventurer? She hadn’t noticed anything like that in the bestiary. Perhaps it was asking for someone with a special skill set, like making poison, or being able to use certain types of magic. Or maybe they had no other options.

_ I suppose I could at least ask… _

“Um, excuse me?”

Marit turned to see a short girl addressing her. Well, she probably wasn’t that short by this world’s standards. She looked a little shorter than Robyn, but taller than Eri. She had short, dirty blonde hair, and amber eyes that were looking up at her with slight trepidation.

“Yes?”

“Are you Miss Marit?”

“Uh… yes.”  _ How does she know my name? _ “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“No, I… I’m Tanja. Miss Verona suggested I talk to you.”

“Huh?”

“W-well, you see, I want to accept a quest, but it’s not exactly safe to do it alone. And I don’t really know many people here, so I asked Miss Verona, and she suggested I talk to you…” 

Her voice was hurried, and a little quiet, but Marit could thankfully still hear what she said. Maybe Tanja was nervous to talk to a giant. Or an elf. No, Verona had probably told her she was human.

_ Right. Miss Verona mentioned she might send people my way if she thought it was for the best. It had already slipped my mind that I could ask her for someone to team up with. _

“Oh, I see… what is the task?”  _ I suppose I should at least hear her out. _

“It’s to collect some rare herbs. I know where to find them, but that part of the forest isn’t safe to go to alone. Too easy to get ambushed by predators who don’t fear people. So I’d like someone to go with me.”

She spoke with more confidence when describing the job. Her outfit was a mix of green cloth and brown leather suited for the outdoors, and she had a bow slung across her back. Maybe she was a hunter, like Dunn. Even if she was good with that bow, it would probably put her at a disadvantage if she got ambushed.

_ If she knows where to go, then maybe this isn’t a bad idea. But I still have to pick up my watch in another couple of days, and the tinkerer lady really didn’t seem like the type to tolerate delays. _

“How long will it take?”

“Well, if we leave right now, we should be back before nightfall.”

“Oh.”  _ That’s not so bad. _ “Alright then. Nice to meet you, Miss Tanja. Looking forward to working with you.” 

* * *

Marit registered herself as a teammate for the quest before they got some provisions for the trip, and headed out the gate. It was a grey day, and it looked like it might rain, so she had taken an umbrella just in case. Honestly she hadn’t been sure they had umbrellas in this world, but she had managed to find one. It was the old-fashioned sort that doubled as a walking cane, not too different from the type her grandfather used to have. It was lacking a spring mechanism, but you could push it out, pull it together, and lock it in either position.

Tanja still looked a little nervous, and Marit felt a little awkward as well.

_ I don’t really meet new people that often. _

Sure she had met several in the past week, but she’d always had some business to talk to them about. It was hard to remember how to do small talk. When she had been walking with Robyn’s group they had mostly carried the conversation. Having to interact with someone one-on-one was more daunting.

_ This silence is too awkward. _ “So… have you been an adventurer for long?” That seemed like a safe opener.

Tanja glanced at her before answering. “No. I only arrived in Durkandel a couple of weeks ago. That’s why I don’t really know anyone yet.”

“Aha.”

“How about you?”

“Almost a week.”

“Heh. Maybe Miss Verona figured us newbies should stick together?” Tanja showed a slight smile.

_ That’s possible. You already seem to have a better grasp on it than me, though. _ “And you’re a… ranger?” 

“I used to be a hunter, but I guess that’s what it’s called when you’re an adventurer. I’m used to being in the forest, so I also know how dangerous it can be.”

That would explain why she felt comfortable taking on a job like this, and even remembering to ask for help. Marit thought she should keep the same thing in mind if she wanted to go on quests outside of the city.

“And you’re a fighter, Miss Marit?”

“Something like that.”

Tanja had probably noticed the sword scabbard. It had taken Marit a bit of effort to find a good position for it, and to get used to walking with the added weight on her side. She hadn’t had anyone to spar with since that day with Robyn, but she’d been practising on her own against the dummies, and working on how to draw and sheathe it properly. Oddly enough it already felt a little easier in her hands, as if the sparring while transformed had somehow carried over a bit of muscle memory. If only it had also carried over muscle mass. It had been many years since she’d last worked out as hard as she had during the past days, and she was well aware she was a long way away from where she wanted to be.

_ If they hadn’t given me a younger, fitter body when I first got here, I don’t think I’d have any chance at all. _

“Hm?” Tanja gave her a confused look.

_ Maybe I shouldn’t be so damn cryptic. _ “It’s a bit hard to explain, but I think an easy way to simplify it is saying I’m a magical fighter. It’s… uh… it might make more sense to see it in action.”  _ Assuming anything happens. _

“Okay…” While it was unlikely she was satisfied with that explanation, Tanja didn’t push the matter any further.

They followed the road into the forest for a little while. It was still a little surprising how dense it looked from the outside, while from the inside there was actually quite a lot of daylight coming down through the canopy. The overcast weather made everything a bit darker, but it was still easy enough to see.

They were probably less than an hour in when Tanja said they needed to go off the road to reach the area where the herbs were. There were signs of a trail, similar to what Marit had often seen when hiking in the mountains, where all sorts of old, less-travelled trails could still be faintly made out. This one seemed very out of use. Maybe that was why they hired adventurers for this. 

“What are these herbs for?”

“Um… medicine.” Tanja gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry, I’m not an apothecary, so I don’t really know the details of it, but I’ve been told they’re a very potent ingredient.”

_ Fair enough. It’s not like I know what’s in a painkiller or sleep aid either. Actually, I wonder if this world has healing potions and such, like in fantasy stories. That would make sense in a world of magic, right? _

“Before I became an adventurer we would often keep our eye out for stuff like this, since we could earn a bit of extra money by selling it when we got back. There aren’t a lot of people who wander willingly into the places they grow, but I’ve been in hunting parties in these woods several times.”

“Maybe it would be easier for people to grow their own in a garden then?”

“Apparently they don’t grow that well outside of deep forest areas. When people try to grow their own they end up less potent, if they grow at all.”

_ Something about the specific conditions, or the soil maybe? Something a greenhouse might be able to replicate, but if those even exist here it’s probably very expensive to set up. _

It did seem like the foliage was becoming a darker shade of green as they continued deeper, but maybe that was just her imagination. It could be the canopy growing denser, or the sky darker. While she was able to smell rain on the air in open areas, the forest was already so full of other scents that she had no hope of distinguishing them.

_ I’m very thankful I don’t have any pollen allergies. _

The air felt a bit muggy and thick though. There probably wasn’t a lot of air movement down there. And the trees looked older, with more moss clinging onto them.

“Ah, here we are!”

Tanja sped up towards a large tree, and towards the base of the thick trunk was a cluster of fern-looking plants that looked like they had a faint shine to them. Maybe that was a trick of the light or something, but they certainly looked quite vibrant.

“This is what we’re looking for.” Tanja showed them off to Marit. “Look around to see if you can find more, but be on your guard. I’ve heard things rustling as we’ve walked, so it’s possible something is keeping an eye on us.”

“Alright.” Marit hadn’t noticed anything like that, but suddenly she felt a bit nervous. Maybe splitting up was a bad idea, but at least they could scream if anything showed up. She’d try her best to stay close.

Using one of the herbs as reference she managed to find another cluster. They were bunched up against the trunk of a tree like the other ones, and she thought it looked like the same kind of tree. Maybe there was some codependency there? It really wasn’t her area of expertise though, so the best she could do was make guesses.

Tanja had shown her how to best harvest them, based on what she herself had been told, so Marit got to it. Carefully cutting the stem close to the root. Appearance wise they didn’t seem particularly special. Just a stem with several thin leaves along it, much like a fern, and they didn’t seem to shine up close. It must have been a trick of the light. They had a particular scent though. She almost wanted to describe it as minty, but that wasn’t quite right. It was more that it smelled fresh. Almost invigorating. So not mint, but it evoked a similar sensation of clearing your head by scent alone.

She wondered if it was okay to harvest the whole patch. Maybe it was better to only take half, and look for another cluster. Since they’d found two that easy, there were likely more.

“Argh! Miss Marit! Help!”

Old instincts kicked in at the cry, as if she’d heard one of her teammates, and she sprinted back towards Tanja to find her on the ground holding off some sort of large creature by pushing her bow into its mouth so it couldn’t reach her. It was impossible to tell from that angle whether Tanja was injured, or had just been knocked over.

The creature reared back for another strike, there was a flash, and suddenly Marit was between it and Tanya. She manifested a large blue shield to block the strike, and knocked the creature away, sending it flying into the brush.

“W-wh-what are- w-who are y-”

“Questions later.”

Tanja might be a hunter, but she was clearly not a warrior. Granted it had been a long time since Marit had been in serious combat too, but everything came back to her with startling ease. She had to react to protect her partner.

The creature recovered, and rose back up menacingly. It was some sort of large snake with green-black scales that camouflaged it well, and its expression looked as venomous as its fangs. Non-venomous snakes often had teeth to grip their prey with as well, but something told her that wasn’t the case here. Something resembling a hood spread out around its head, as if it was attempting to make itself look larger than it actually was.

_ You’re already plenty large. Now are you going to attack again, or retreat, or… _

The snake made its choice as soon as Marit made a move to lower her shield, and lunged at her again. For an ambush predator it sure seemed fond of the direct approach if challenged. Though it was possible it actually predicted she would raise the shield again, as the tail was swiping in from the side at the same time.

_ Clever beast. _

However she’d had a different plan from the start. Dodging to the side away from the tail with speed superior to the snake’s, her shield changed shape into a sword, and swung towards the neck of the snake. Only the slightest resistance was offered by the snake’s skin before its head was lopped off.

_ Tough luck, pal. These weapons are meant for far tougher opponents than you. _

Even if she wasn’t at full power, they were more than enough for this. The snake’s body crashed to the ground, and briefly thrashed around before falling still.

“Ah! Behind-”

Marit’s sword reformed into a spear, and she thrust it behind herself. Another snake that was lunging at her back ended up impaling itself on the sharp object that was suddenly directly in the path of its mouth. The tip stuck out of the back of its neck.

“-you…”

_ Actually, do snakes have necks? How much of the snake is the neck? _

To be more precise the spear exited just below the skull.

So it had a friend. Perhaps that explained why it was willing to be so direct. It was creating an opening for the other one.

_ Quite clever. _

She kept on alert for a minute longer, but the whole area seemed deathly still.

“Are you okay, Miss Tanja?” Marit turned to look at her.

“Who… i-is that you, Miss Marit?”

“Yes. I told you it was a bit hard to explain without a demonstration, but it’s me. Now, are you okay?”

“I… it grazed my hand as I blocked it with the bow, but I have anti-venom in my bag.”

_ She’s already starting to look pale, though. Or is that just because of the fright? _

Regardless, Marit crouched down, embraced Tanja’s wounded hand between her own, and channeled magic into it. She envisioned it hunting down and neutralising the venom before it closed up the skin.

“Wha…”

“There. Now you can save the anti-venom for another time.” She smiled. Maybe the stuff was expensive.

Tanja was staring at her. “What  _ are  _ you, Miss Marit?” A sensible question.

“The term is magical girl. But it doesn’t seem like anyone’s heard of them around here, so I’ve been struggling to find a good way to explain it. See, when I transform like this I get stronger, can summon weapons, and use magic.” That was as succinct as she could make it.

“Oh. Are they common where you’re from?”

“I’m not sure I’d say that exactly, but at least most people have heard of them.” She helped Tanja back up. “So what were those things? Monsters?”

“Huh? No, they’re Durkian Cobras. Possibly the most dangerous predator in this forest, but even this deep it’s not common to run into one, let alone a pair, so I didn’t think… I thought maybe we were being stalked by wolves or panthers.”

Marit looked at the creatures again. The one that had attacked Tanja was definitely the larger one, but they were both easily big enough that they could have swallowed an entire human being whole. That probably explained the attack. She had seen snakes on TV that were about this size, but they had been pythons and anacondas.

It was starting to sink in that she had just killed two living creatures. They had been animals trying to kill them, but even so it gave her a chill. The biggest living thing she had ever killed before was a fish.

_ I knew this was bound to happen eventually, but I wasn’t as prepared as I had hoped. _

“We’d better take them with us.”

Marit stared at Tanja. “What?”

“Well, we can’t start cutting them up here. That’s just going to attract more beasts. And we can get a lot of money from them, especially with how cleanly you killed them. The skin is barely damaged. Posh places want the meat. And apothecaries and alchemists want the venom glands among other things.”

“Oh.”

“I think I might be able to fit both into my bag, but to be safe we’d better take one each.”

“Uh, right…”

“And grab the head you cut off, even the fangs and eyes get a good price with the right kind of person.” Tanja was suddenly very in charge of the situation, and Marit was compelled to follow her lead.

_ Ew. Hopefully the blood doesn’t mess up the inside of the bag. _

Considering how things seemed to be stored in separate bubbles it was probably fine.

They grabbed some more herbs to make sure they hit the quota for the quest, then started heading back. There was still a chance that the spilled blood could attract something, so it wasn’t a good place to stop for lunch. It seemed like the fight with the cobras had scared everything else in the vicinity away, but who knew when something might come skulking back. Once they were back on the road they decided to take a break, and get something to eat.

“Are you going to butcher them yourself?” Marit was reminded of a story she had read not long ago.

“Mm… if I had a space for it I technically could, but… I don’t think I’m skilled enough to handle something like this properly. It’s best to leave it to professionals, even if we have to pay a fee. It’ll probably get us a better price than if I tried it myself, and it should be enough to make up the difference.”

“I see.”

“I believe Miss Verona said they have a business affiliated with the guild. We can ask when we get back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have a new recurring character. I have not yet decided how big of a role she'll play, especially since my writing has stalled, but this isn't her only role.  
> I hope I get back into writing new stuff soon.


	9. Cobra Sorting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As they return to the city, Marit and Tanja have to sort out what to do with the cobras they killed.

The way the clouds on the horizon had an orange tint to them probably indicated that the sun was going down around the time Marit and Tanja exited the forest. By the time they reached the gate it was already getting dark.

This was the first time Marit had left the city since she arrived, and getting back in was a much easier process than on her first arrival. She thought she recognised one of the guards, but they all looked pretty similar in uniform. 

As they made their way to the guild, the street lights turned on. It was kind of amazing that they even had street lights. These magic crystals they used for all sorts of things had to be pretty common. She hadn’t asked where they came from, since they seemed to be so ubiquitous that she was probably expected to know, and she hadn’t found anything in the books she had bought.

_ I have enough stuff on my list of things I want to know more about that it might be worth visiting the bookstore a second time. _

She hadn’t read every single word in the books she’d gotten so far, but she was fairly certain she’d covered anything of immediate importance.

It was also her first time visiting the guild that late. Honestly it surprised her that they stayed open late, but everyone seemed to take it as a given. Regular businesses all seemed to keep reasonable daylight hours. While she was a little nervous about interacting with a different receptionist, she was glad to discover that Verona did not actually work all day. 

“Miss Hinfrid, we are back.” Seemed like Tanja already knew her, so it might be best to let her handle the talking.

“Oh, Miss Tanja. I’m glad you are well. And you are…?”

“Marit. Nice to meet you, Miss Hinfrid.”

“Oh, so you’re Miss Marit? I see…” She gave Marit an odd look, then seemed to catch herself. “Ahem. How did the quest go?”

“We got the herbs.” They presented the leather bags Tanja had brought along, and their cards.

“Hm…” Hinfrid placed the bags on some sort of device. “Yes, this is a good amount. The client will be pleased.” Probably a weight scale or something along those lines. “I’ll mark the quest as complete.” She placed their cards in the slots on that strange device that sat on all the guild’s counters, which Marit assumed was some sort of reader, though she still hadn’t figured out how they read or registered things on it. There had to be some interface she couldn’t see.

“We also have a couple of animal carcasses we’d like to sell,” Tanja brought up as they took their cards back.

“You went hunting while you were out there?”

“Not exactly… we were attacked by a pair of Durkian Cobras.”

“A pair??” Hinfrid’s shocked gasp drew the attention of some of the other adventurers in the room.

“Don’t worry, we’re okay! Miss Marit dealt with them.”

“She… did?” Hinfrid still looked shocked. “And you have the bodies to prove it?”

“Yes.”

“I… the butchering workshop is still open. I’ll have to go with you to verify this, so I can show you the way.”

They could hear murmuring among the other adventurers as Hinfrid led them out of the building, and a few even followed behind, presumably out of curiosity. 

The place she was taking them to was basically just across the street. It was a large building, probably larger than the actual guild. But if it was the main location adventurers brought their kills, then it made sense they needed the space.

“Genrik!”

“Eh? Oh, Hinfrid.” A clean-shaven man wearing a leather apron turned towards them. “What’s up?”

“I need to verify some kills. Do you have any large tables free?”

“Sure, we’ve gotten the big jobs out of the way for today. Over here.” He took them to a table so large you could probably butcher an elephant on it.

“Then, if you would?” Hinfrid looked at them.

“I think you’ll have to handle this, Miss Marit.” Tanja placed her bag on the table.

“Alright.” She transformed, to the astonishment of everyone present, and started extracting the carcass of the larger cobra that she had placed in her own bag. She spread it along the table, and remembered to take out the head too. Then she followed up with taking the slightly smaller one out of Tanja’s bag. Each of them was at least a couple hundred kilos.

“Bloody hell,” hissed the man Hinfrid had called Genrik.

“Are these genuine Durkian Cobras?” Hinfrid asked.

“They sure look like it, but let me check so we’re certain.” He retrieved a catalogue and some tools, and started examining the two bodies. After a couple of minutes he was ready to give his answer. “Yup, they’re the real deal. Fresh kills. Excellent condition, too. I’m not sure how you managed to…” He was scratching his head. “Actually, considering you just lifted the things on your own I can hazard a guess. But even with that strength the blade that did this cut has to be exceptional.” 

“I see… Genrik, can I borrow your terminal for a bit?”

“Sure, that’s what it’s for. If you want us to butcher these I’ll need to start preparing.”

“Miss Marit, Miss Tanja? What say you?” Hinfrid seemed to be asking for their permission.

“Yes, please.” They had already agreed they would be best off not doing it themselves, but since there was a fee involved they probably needed official approval.

“Good. In the meantime, follow me.”

They went over to the counter next to where they had found Genrik, which had a device just like what they had seen at the guild.

“Let me see…” She was tapping on something. “Yes, I thought I remembered as much. There is a quest to hunt one of these, and deliver its body. Or at least all the relevant parts of it. Even though you didn’t accept the quest beforehand, it’s possible to do so in hindsight, if you’re willing to hand one of them over to us. We can’t pay you for the parts like a normal sale, so the selling price would be the quest reward, but we’d cover the butchering fee. The other one you’re free to sell or use for yourself as you want, of course. The quest only asks for one.”

“Oh. What do you think?” Marit looked at Tanya. She was the one most eager about selling these creatures.

“It might be a good idea. No one else has accepted the quest?”

“No. The only issue is that because of how rare the cobras are, and how difficult they are to subdue, it’s considered an intermediate quest. And you two are only beginners, so normally you wouldn’t have access to that quest without joining a higher-ranked party. But in the circumstances I think the guildmaster would understand.” Hinfrid smiled at them.

Marit realised she hadn’t actually seen the guildmaster yet. Whoever they were, they didn’t seem to hang around the front room much. It was probably one of those jobs that had a lot of paperwork to manage. Or maybe they delegated everything, and spent all day doing leisure activities.

“Okay, you have a deal.”

“Alright. Then I need your cards again.”

“Here you go.” Marit handed over hers, then noticed Tanja was just standing there. “You too, Miss Tanja.”

“Huh? But you killed them on your own, Miss Marit.”

“You guided me out there and back, and you’re the one who said we should bring them back. I wouldn’t have thought of it. Not to mention you saved me by warning me when the second one attacked.”

That final part was technically not true. She had noticed that while transformed her situational awareness was heightened beyond normal limits, so she had sensed the second snake lunge at her without needing to see, and would have speared it even if Tanja hadn’t said anything. But no one else needed to know that.

“So we accept this as a team, or not at all. I insist.”

Tanya sighed. “Alright.” She didn’t seem entirely convinced, but she relented. “I have a feeling I won’t be able to change your mind.”

They handed their cards over, and Hinfrid did her thing.

“There we go. Which cobra are you letting us have?”

“The smaller one.”

“I expected as much. It’s not like we can change your reward even if you give us the larger one, and as far as I can tell it’s still a pretty big specimen. I’ll make sure the client is notified.”

They headed back towards the table, where Genrik had started assembling a crew, and filled him in on the arrangement.

“Gotcha. You can come back tomorrow morning to pick up all the pieces of this one.” He patted the scaly hide of the larger cobra. “And I’ll prepare an inventory list if you intend to sell it via the commerce guild. They like knowing exactly what they’re buying, and how much.”

_ The commerce guild? I can ask about that later. _ “Okay, thank you.”

“Um, but before you go… you’re the one who decapitated this one, Miss? I don’t suppose you could do the same for the other? It would give us a much easier time as a starting point for skinning it. The hides of these things can be a pain.”

“Uh, sure.”

They positioned the carcass so the head hung just off the edge of the table, and put a bucket underneath for it to fall into, as if they were conducting an execution.

“Just behind the stab wound, please.”

Marit summoned her magic blade, and took aim.

_ *CHOP* _

* * *

“Ugh… I can’t believe I froze up like that.”

“You didn’t freeze. You were knocked over by like a quarter ton of snake, so I say you did well to hold it back.”

“But I should have gotten back up, and… done something.”

“You didn’t really get the time.”

“I guess…” Tanja grumbled, and sipped her drink.

The two of them had decided to get something to eat together before they split up for the night. With no better ideas, they had ended up at the same tavern she had visited with Robyn and the others a few days earlier. Even Tanja knew of it as the go-to adventurer hangout.

The quest reward had been more than enough to cover the cost of the food. Might even be enough to pay for everyone present, but no sense in doing that. She wasn’t sure if that was a standard rate for intermediate quests, or whether someone really wanted that snake. They had come out of it with 20 silver each, and who knew how many merit points. That seemed pretty good. Though considering how Hinfrid had spoken, maybe that was below what it was actually worth. Tanja had hesitated about accepting half the reward when she didn’t feel like she had contributed much, but Marit wouldn’t have it any other way.

Marit had gone for some fried… probably chicken, and Tanja had ordered some pork chops. Probably pork. She figured they probably had normal chickens, pigs, cows, and so on like back home. She had even seen chickens, or at least some birds that looked just like chickens, but she hadn’t stopped to ask what they were called. 

“So… what was that power?”

“Hm?”

“The… what did you call it… magical girl thing? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Seemed like no one had. “Well, when I transform-”

“Yeah, I saw that, you can make weapons, and lift a giant snake as if it was filled with air instead of innards. But where did you… how did you… get it?” Tanja gestured aimlessly in the air. “Were you born that way?”

“Ah. No, I wasn’t born with it.”  _ I’m not even sure if that’s a possibility. _ “There might be more than one way to get magical girl powers, and the exact powers may vary depending on how you get them.”  _ At least according to fiction, but now that I know alternate worlds exist, maybe some of those stories are close to the truth somewhere out there. _ “As for me, I was chosen by a god.”

“God?” Tanja didn’t seem any less confused.

“Yes…” While she didn’t seriously think of the Council as gods, it felt like the easiest way to handwave the matter. Considering what she had read about religion in this world, the belief in one singular all-powerful God was the exception rather than the norm. So outside of those few monotheistic areas, most people were willing to accept the idea of pantheons, hierarchies, and other things. Plus if she kept things simple it was easier to keep her story straight. “Where I’m from there are gods who can grant the power of magic to a mortal they choose.”

“That sounds like something from a fairytale…” Tanja rubbed her forehead. “If I hadn’t seen it for myself… why do they choose people, though?”

“We were chosen to battle a great evil that couldn’t really be hurt by other means.” Marit didn’t really have a reason to try to come up with a lie for that.

“We?”

“Uh… yeah… I used to be on a team. There were five of us.”

“Five?? Just like you??” Tanja nearly went bug-eyed.

“Well, more or less. We had different things we were good at. I guess my unique talent was weapons. You saw me switch between different things, right? Basically I can conjure any weapon I can imagine. The others had their own special talents.”

_ Even if what I imagine doesn’t always translate the same way in this world. _

The rest of the team members technically had the same ability to alter their weapons, but none could do it with the same ease as Marit. Nina could charge her attacks with various magic far better than any of them, basically mastering all elements, and other effects. Lena came the closest with how she could charge her blade with fire at a mere thought, but honestly her durability was her greatest talent. No one had really figured out how to create shields the way Birgitte could, and Heidi was peerless both in terms of healing ability, and tactical awareness. Her multi-tasking was so impressive Marit almost wondered whether she had more than one mind in her head.

“I’m sorry, this is a bit much to take in…” Tanya sighed deeply. “I’ve heard of magic knights, even if I’ve never seen one, but I feel like you might be on a different level. What I really don’t get is that if you’re some sort of holy warrior, why are you here?”

_ Holy warrior? I’ve really been called a lot of things since I came here. As for why I’m here... _

“There was an accident… and I don’t think I can go back any longer…”

“Oh…” Maybe there was something about the way Marit had said it, but Tanja didn’t press the matter any further. The mood had turned rather gloomy.

_ I need to stop thinking so much about the others. It just makes me miss them all the more. Do they know what happened to me? Birgitte must have heard, and hopefully she let the others know. The thought of them not knowing really bothers me. Though I don’t actually know what happened myself. The last thing I remember is slipping. Maybe it’s better that way… _

The rest of the meal was eaten mostly in silence, and they parted ways after agreeing on where and when to meet up the next day.

* * *

The two of them rendezvoused at the butchering workshop the following morning, and headed inside together. At the counter they found a buff-looking woman with curly brown hair, and the same kind of leather apron that it seemed like all employees wore. They were probably easy to clean.

“Excuse me, is Mister Genrik here?”

The woman looked up at them with her purple eyes. That wasn’t a colour Marit had ever seen back home. “Nah, he’s on the afternoon shift. I handle the mornings. The name’s Sletta. So how can I help ya?” If she felt any surprise at seeing them, her expression didn’t betray it. She seemed to have a similar accent to Robyn’s, just not as thick.

“We’re here for the Durkian Cobra we delivered yesterday.”

“That thing’s yours?” She raised an eyebrow, and started looking them over. “Can I see your ID?”

They handed over their cards, and Sletta checked them.

“Well, I’ll be… alright, first off here’s an itemised list of what we stripped from it.” She pulled a sheet out from somewhere below the counter, and placed it in front of them for inspection. “Just tell me how much you’re keeping, and how much you’re selling.”

“Pardon?”

“Ah right, you’re still listed as beginners. First time here?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Well, I’ll give ya the introductory explanation then. When ya hand something over to us, especially something as valuable as this, ya should make a decision on whether ya want to keep any of it for yourself, and if so, how much. Then I can write an updated sales list ya can take over to the commerce guild. Unless ya have your own merchant connections, or a shop of your own, I recommend selling at the guild.”

“Oh.” That made sense. Marit hadn’t really considered keeping anything, since she didn’t know what to do with it.

As if answering that unspoken question, Sletta continued. “For instance, cobra leather is tough, but flexible, and can be made into very good armour. Well suited for a ranger such as you, Miss Leram.”

“Call me Tanja, please.” So that was Tanja’s last name.

“And you can call me Marit.”

“Gotcha. The meat is considered a delicacy, so if ya have faith in your skills, ya can try cooking some of it yourself. Never tried it myself. Stuff like the venom glands are best left to healers or alchemists. I know some people like coating weapons with snake venom, but unless ya really know what you’re doing, I wouldn’t recommend messing with it. Or maybe ya just want something as a trophy. Ya could probably make a necklace or something with the fangs.”

Marit was looking over the list. “Wait, you preserved the eyeballs?”

“Alchemists swear by them, and for a snake this big the eyes are naturally big too.”

“Huh. Almost expected to see the blood on here too, then.”

“Well, the thing about that is that ya kinda have to drain the blood while it’s still warm, and use a magic flask to keep it fresh. By the time ya get the body here, the blood will have congealed too much. We can still try to salvage some of it if ya ask, but by default we don’t bother.”

_ Would it really matter when the body was kept in suspended animation in a bag of holding? Or maybe most bags don’t do that. _

She couldn’t really think of anything she could do with any of the stuff on the list. Even if she had a kitchen she wouldn’t want to try cooking the meat without a proper recipe. Keeping a trophy might be neat, but didn’t really feel necessary.

“What do you think, Miss Tanja?” Maybe she wanted some of the skin like Sletta had suggested.

“The armour is tempting…” So she had been thinking about it. “But I don’t think I can justify the crafting expense. I’d rather have the extra money.”

“You could keep it for when you can afford it?” Marit suggested.

“Hm… no, I don’t think so. Even if I managed to keep it in good condition until I could afford the armour, I’d stand out too much wearing it. I’ll leave that to you, Miss Marit,” she said with a playful smile.

_ It’s not like I enjoy standing out either. Though I seem to be getting used to it surprisingly quickly. _

“Keeping the fang that grazed me might be a good memento. Maybe it will help me remember to be more careful.”

“Alright. I’ll take one too, then.”

“And you’re selling the rest?” Sletta asked, to which they nodded. “Alright, I’ll get someone to write an updated list while I show you the stuff. Oh, but first the fee. Can’t release the items before you pay, I’m afraid.”

“Of course.”

“I know it probably seems a bit high, but it was a lot of work, and took a lot of packaging to make sure it’s gonna keep well. Ya should have no problem recouping that cost, and making a nice profit, though.”

12 silver. Marit wasn’t sure if that was truly a lot, but the disheartened look on Tanja’s face told her all she needed to know. Come to think of it, it was over a fourth of their total reward for the other one. Thankfully the guild (or maybe the client) covered the fee for that one. 6 silver each didn’t sound so bad to Marit, but Tanja was clearly dejected. Hopefully Sletta was correct.

With that out of the way, she took them to the cold storage where they had all of the packaged crates containing the cobra. They extracted a fang for each of them from the box that contained all the teeth. It looked almost like a jewellery case.

“Do ya need any help loading the stuff?”

“No, thank you, Miss Sletta. I can handle it.” Marit took a step away from them, and transformed.

“Bloody hell!” Sletta’s startled outburst made Marit crack a smile.

She placed the crates in her bag. It was still strange to see how things that were clearly too big for the bag just shrunk down, and got sucked into it. Everyone else in this world seemed to treat that as normal. Once they had everything they were ready to go. The crates made her think of her first quest for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last couple of chapters have run a little long due to not having a good place to cut off before then, but this one was little more reasonable.  
> I had forgotten just how many words this part of the story had ended up being, though. So many words for so little happening. I guess that's a recurring theme for this story.


	10. The Commerce Guild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The visit to the commerce guild becomes a bigger deal than expected.  
> Afterwards Marit decides to pick up some of the things she has ordered.

Finding the commerce guild wasn’t much of a problem. They had to head across to the other side of the plaza, but the building was very easy to spot. It was similar in style (though a bit nicer) to the adventurers’ guild, but the clientele would be hard-pressed to look any more different. They spotted a few adventurers, and some regular people, but the majority of them seemed like merchants, or similar types. It reminded her more of what she’d seen in the middle ring, except the vast majority here looked like business people rather than upper class.

Heading up the short stairs reminded her of her first visit to the adventurers’ guild as a similar dying down of chatter happened when people noticed her. 

Either the place was always busy, or they’d arrived during high business hours, because every open counter was occupied. They had no choice except to get in line. The wait was awkward, and Tanja didn’t look any more at ease than Marit felt, but thankfully it didn’t take too long until it was their turn.

“May I help you, ladies?” A pretty woman with dark hair set in a bun, sparkling green eyes, and a pair of cute glasses greeted them. The care she took in her appearance made her look every bit like the kind of person who would work in a place like this.

“Uh, yes.” Tanja appeared to have been stunned for a moment, then handed over the list Sletta had given them. “We’d like to sell these materials.”

The woman took a look at it. “A cobra?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise for just a moment before her professional expression snapped back into place. “Have you brought it all with you?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” She stroked her chin. “I think we’d better continue this in the back. Mister Vanik!” She turned her head to call out to someone. “Can you take over for me? I need to confer with a client!”

“Of course.” A young man in a business suit came over to take the woman’s place as she led them past the counters, and into a meeting room in the back.

“Sorry about that, but I feel this matter requires a deeper discussion than what we can have at the counter.” She smiled, and motioned for them to take a seat. “You can call me Siriam.” 

“I’m Marit.”

“Tanja.”

They sat down next to each other.

“Now then.” Siriam sat down across from them. “I’m sure you’ve already been told that this is something rare you’re offering, so I’ll skip going over that. Are you selling on behalf of someone?”

“No.” Marit shook her head. “We killed it ourselves.”

“Interesting. Well, I can offer you two ways of selling it,” Siriam said without missing a beat. “Either you can sell it directly to us, or you can let us handle selling it for you.”

“Handle selling it?”

“Yes. By that I mean that you retain ownership of the items until they’re sold, and we deal with finding buyers and negotiating prices for you. If we are able to get a sale, we will hand over the money to you, minus our handler fee. This will likely get you more money if it sells, but if we can’t find buyers you won’t get anything. I highly doubt that would be the case for rare items like this though. You can also retrieve any unsold items if you so desire. I suppose you could also consider it a downside that we can’t pay you anything right away. You’ll only get money after the sale, so you’ll need to check back in with us.”

“I see.”

“The alternative is that you sell the cobra directly to us. We agree on a fixed price, and you get the money immediately. I’m sure we can settle on a decent price for you, but we have to err on the side of caution. Keep in mind that we are looking to make a profit off of this. But that would be the end of the deal for you, so you wouldn’t have to worry about checking back in.”

_ I feel like I’m at a disadvantage here, since I’m still a bit uncertain about the value of money in this world. _

As an accountant she had a decent head for numbers, but she’d never been great at business. That time she had tried actually being a salesperson hadn’t turned out well. Maybe Tanja had better insight in that department, but she currently seemed lost in thought.

Marit had the advantage of not needing the money right away. She would much prefer leaving everything on the business side to the commerce guild, and hope they wouldn’t get screwed over. But she didn’t know anything about Tanja’s financial situation.

“How much is the fee?”

“We take a 10% cut of the sale, Miss Marit.”

That didn’t seem so bad. “What do you think, Miss Tanja?”

Tanja jumped a little, like someone snapped out of their thoughts. “Huh? Um…” 

“Miss Siriam, would you mind if we discussed this privately for a minute?” Marit asked.

“Not at all. I should go collect some documents we’ll need regardless. You can give me your answer when I return.”

Siriam left the room, leaving Marit and Tanja alone.

“Is something wrong, Miss Marit?”

_ That’s kinda what I want to ask you. _ “Not exactly, I just felt it might be a bad idea to admit right in front of the person we’re negotiating with that I don’t have a very good mind for business, so I’m not sure which option would be best for us. I think I would prefer letting them handle all the details, especially if it will earn us more long term, but if you would rather have some money right now, I won’t object. It sounded like she will give us a good deal.”  _ Not that I’m an expert, but so long as we get more than the quest reward was, that’s probably good. _ “What are you thinking, Miss Tanja?”

“Well… since you’re being honest, I will be as well. Things have been a little tight since I got here. Beginner quests don’t pay a lot, so that’s why I wanted to move up to novice. So I was wondering if it was best to just do a sale right here and now…”

“That’s reasonable.” Marit nodded. “Nothing wrong with wanting to feel comfortable.”

“But I am also tempted by the idea of earning more. That there was a quest out for a cobra was honestly a lucky break. With that on top of the pay for the herb quest I have gotten a bit of a cushion…”

Marit could certainly remember times in her life where she’d had to be very cautious about spending. Having a monetary cushion was very helpful for one’s mental state.

“Do you think it would take them long to sell the cobra?”

“I’m not sure… we can ask Miss Siriam when she comes back before we make our final decision?”

“Alright.” Tanja nodded.

About a minute later Siriam reentered the room with a folder, presumably containing documents, pressed against her chest.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” She sat back down, and opened the folder. “Did you reach a consensus?”

“There is one more thing we would like to know.” Marit decided to be the one to ask. “How long do you think it would take to sell the cobra?”

“I feel confident that as soon as we put word out that we have a Durkian Cobra, interested parties will make their move as soon as they’re able. I can’t give you a 100% guarantee, but if you come back in a couple of days I expect most of it will be gone. Since there’s no rule about needing to wait until everything is sold, you are free to collect as much of the available money in your account at any time. Well, any time we are open, at least.” She flashed them a smile.

Marit and Tanja looked at each other. “I’m good with that,” Tanja said. 

“Okay. Then we’ll take the option to let the guild handle the sale, Miss Siriam.”

“Excellent!” Siriam smiled wide. “Then we need to agree on the terms of the contract, and register your identification cards to create your accounts with us.”

That made it sound like they were a bank on top of everything else.

While she might not be the type to do sales and cut deals, Marit had certainly seen her fair share of contracts and similar documents throughout her life. This one basically laid out what they had already discussed with no real surprises, and naturally included a section about the rights and responsibilities of each party. She couldn’t spot anything fishy, and they both ended up signing.

After they finished registering their cards, they were led to the guild’s cold storage to unload the items. Instead of transforming, Marit accepted the help of the employees to get the crates unloaded, and placed in a good spot. They decided to place everything in the same area for ease of locating it after it was sold. It made little sense to spread out the separately sealed items like the eyes, tongue, venom glands, and so on. The employees made a cursory inspection to check whether everything on the inventory list was present.

“The hide looks pristine,” they commented. “I can’t see any damage aside from the cuts they needed to make to skin it. I almost hope we’ll be able to find someone willing to buy the whole thing, since it would be a shame to cut it up further.”

Then they got out of the cold, and wrapped things up with a final signature on the receipt for the items before Marit and Tanja could leave.

* * *

“That was scary. Scarier than the cobra.” Marit hadn’t even realised how tense she had been until after they left.

“Speak for yourself. Sure I felt out of my depth, but rather that than facing another cobra.” Tanja shuddered.

The two of them had decided to have lunch before splitting up for the day. The business at the guild had taken a while, so it was just about that time.

“I guess you have a point.” Without her powers Marit wouldn’t have been very eager to face down something like that either. Aside from on TV she had never seen a snake even approaching that size. Back home they were all pretty small. Well, by comparison. 

_ Before yesterday a snake longer than a metre seemed big to me. My perspective has been shifted a little now. _

“It still bothers me that I wasn’t able to do more.” Tanja had been reluctant to split the profits from the sale 50-50, but Marit had been very insistent. “I thought that hunting animals for years had prepared me. We’ve even hunted dangerous predators before if we needed to. But coming face to face with one like that really shook me. Not like you.”

“Well, everyone has different things they’re good at, and we come from different places. I was trained to be a warrior, so I feel at home during combat.”  _ I had honestly thought that feeling would have faded by now, but it came back so easily that it almost scares me. _ “But I wouldn’t be able to hunt down an animal even if my life depended on it. I have no tracking or stealth skills.” That her friends and family kept telling her she had very soft footfalls, and that they didn’t always hear her enter the room didn’t really count. 

Of course she hadn’t thought of it as being a warrior back when she was an active magical girl. Pretty much all the kids knew what a magical girl was. Even if reality hadn’t quite matched up to the fantasies they’d seen, it had still felt more like a magical adventure than something scary. They fought the big monsters, and saved people. It was only in hindsight she had realised what they had been turned into. Not that she blamed the Council. Not really. They did what they felt was necessary, and she couldn’t say that she had any better ideas. Those things had to be stopped.

“I think I need to work on becoming more like a warrior if I am going to make it very far as an adventurer. Gotta say, you were really cool, Miss Marit.”

“Um… thanks.” Marit smiled. She felt a little embarrassed at the praise. “Feel free to call upon my help again if you want, Miss Tanja.” She respected that sense of determination.

“And you as well. If I’m not busy I wouldn’t mind teaming up again.”

* * *

After they parted ways, Marit considered what to do. She had decided against going back to the guild. After their unexpectedly exciting outing, it felt like a good idea to take the rest of the day off. Her brain felt a little fried after the meeting at the commerce guild, and the next day she had to pick up her watch, so doing something that didn’t require a lot of effort felt like a good plan.

She decided to go back to the clothing stores she had visited with Robyn and Eri to see if any of the outfits she had ordered were done. It might be a good time to visit a laundry service for the first time as well. She was running low on underwear, and her single outerwear outfit hadn’t been washed either. Strangely it still smelled fine, and didn’t appear particularly dirty. Considering everything she had been doing, and how she hadn’t found any deodorant in any form anywhere so far, that was practically a miracle. Had the Council done something to it so it kept itself clean? Or did it get cleaned every time she transformed? Maybe there was something about it in the notebook they had left her, but she wanted to get it washed regardless.

She was also thinking it might be time to go back to the bookstore, but her brain really needed the time off that day, so it was probably fine to put it off a little longer.

* * *

Most of the outfits had been done, so she’d had something to walk around in while everything else was getting laundered. Maybel had even complimented her on how she looked in the green dress Eri had picked out for her. She wouldn’t call herself the most fashion-minded person, so it was nice to have someone come along to give their opinions and advice. Even if in this case she’d had to ask at every store if they could make one in her size.

The next morning she decided she might as well wear the dress when she went to the tinkerer’s workshop. She wasn’t really used to wearing dresses in her everyday life back home, but her ego had gotten a little boost from Maybel’s praise. Also they didn’t have jeans in this world. Not that she had found so far, at least.

It was only once she was out on the street she realised that she couldn’t tell whether people were looking at her because she looked nice in her dress, or because she still towered over everyone. And since it was a green dress, maybe it just made her look even more like an elf? Or maybe they didn’t have those stereotypes about elves here.

The middle ring seemed much the same as the previous time she had gone there. Everything looked more posh and expensive than in the outer ring.

_ I wonder if it ramps up even further the closer to the inner ring I get. I don’t know how much nobility lives here besides the Marquis. _

It wasn’t hard to retrace her steps to the tinkerer’s place. She had always had a knack for finding her way back to anywhere she’d already been, even if it was only once. So she liked to think she had a good sense of direction.

The bell jingled pleasantly like last time as soon as she opened the door.

“Eh?”

She heard an exclamation from behind the counter.

“Good morning, Miss…” It occurred to her that she had never asked the lady’s name. “Tinkerer.”

“Who… oh. Took me a moment to recognise you. You’re actually on time, Miss Hovik. And the name’s Grettel, thank you very much.”

“Ah, of course, Miss G-”

“Master.”

“Huh?” Marit was confused for a moment, but the pieces slowly slotted together. “Oh. My apologies, Master Grettel.” _ I guess someone’s grumpy this morning. I’ve dealt with similar people before though. _

“Good. Now, this thing you wanted, the timepiece. Hell of a thing. No one else would have been able to do it in just three days, I’ll tell you that much. My finest work, I’ll have you know.”

The thing Grettel placed on the counter looked eerily a lot like one of the pocket-watches Marit had seen in the old world. While she couldn’t say for sure if the metal was actually silver, that was certainly the colour of it.

“A lesser crafter I’m sure would have just made it square like a clock, but if you’re keeping it in your pocket you don’t want it poking you constantly, hence why it’s round,” she said, as if explaining it to a child. “This button here opens the cover protecting the glass, and it will lock back into place automatically if you press it down. I give you my personal guarantee that the magic crystal powering it will last for at least five years, or I’ll swap it out for free. Don’t even think about asking anyone else to tinker with it, even just to change the crystal. They will only break it.”

There was definitely nothing lacking about this lady’s ego. Marit took out the rest of the payment for the watch, and placed it on the counter.

“Good.” Grettel seemed satisfied that she didn’t have to ask. “I almost regret letting you have it for that cheap, but a deal’s a deal, and I would never break one. Now, is there anything else you’d like?”

“Hm…” Marit picked up the watch. It felt nice and solid, and she could feel the ticking as well.  _ Runs on magic, huh? _ “Could you attach a chain I can fasten to my coat, so that if it accidentally slides out I don’t lose it?”

It might be smarter to just keep it in her bag, but since she had asked for a pocket-watch, she might as well keep it in her pocket unless circumstances dictated otherwise.

“A chain? That’s not a bad idea…” Grettel muttered, perhaps not intending to be heard. “I guess it would be a shame if you managed to lose my masterpiece,” she said in a louder voice. “Give me half an hour.” She took the watch back. “But it won’t be free.”

“Understood.”

She didn’t really have any choice except to wait. There was no one else in the shop at the moment, she couldn’t even see the apprentice, but she wasn’t really interested in trying to strike up a conversation anyway. Far better to just examine the pieces on display. She had a feeling there would be hell to pay if she tried touching any of them, though.

There were no prices attached to anything, so she had no idea if they were actually for sale, or just for display, but there were a few clocks, a spyglass, a telescope, a scale, and other things that Marit didn’t immediately recognise. There was something that looked like a sextant, but she had never actually seen one up close before, so it was hard to be sure. Plus she thought those were used at sea, but she could be wrong.

She wondered if anything in the shop was a kitchen appliance. What sort of gadgets did the fabulously wealthy buy for their chefs? Did they have magical toasters? Considering what she’d seen magical crystals be able to do so far, a magic oven didn’t seem like a huge stretch. If you combined wind and heat crystals, could you even get a hot air oven? The fact that they had cold storage rooms had to mean they at least figured out how to use crystals for that, so what else did they have? Though the question of where the crystals came from, and how they were configured, remained unanswered.

“It’s done.”

Marit jumped a little. She hadn’t heard Grettel come back in.

“That’ll be another fifty silver.”

The chain now attached to the watch was basically exactly what she had imagined. Almost as if the lady was able to read her mental image of a pocket watch. Even having the perfectly sized chain on hand. Or had she forged it right on the spot? Even so, the price seemed a little steep.

“And I suppose there will be no-”

“No haggling.”

“Thought so.” She had already started counting up the coins before asking. That the lady was able to do work like this so quickly was probably why she was worth the money. Or at least, why no one was able to argue. She might be correct that no one else was able to do it. 

_ Helps to have a monopoly on the market. _

“Thank you for your business, Miss Hovik,” Grettel said upon receiving the money, and actually cracked a tiny smile. Self-satisfaction, perhaps?

Marit popped open the watch as she exited the workshop. Assuming it was correct, and she wasn’t sure if she dared assume otherwise, it was still before ten o’clock. Being able to check the time again felt like a blessing, even if it was a far cry from a smartphone. There wasn’t a pocket on the dress for her to put it into, so it went into the bag for now, but she had intended to go back and change outfits anyway.

Maybe she could grab a cup of coffee before she went back.

* * *

The coffee had been as bitter as expected. Her tongue seemed to be the same as it had been back home, and it really wasn’t fond of bitter things. So it remained that she enjoyed the smell of coffee much more than the taste. The pastries had been nice, though there was no sign of chocolate.

Afterwards she had changed back into the blue outfit she had first woken up in in this world, and headed to the guild. Which appeared to be as it always was, except she didn’t see Verona anywhere. Hopefully that meant the woman actually took days off. She hadn’t intended to talk to her, or even accept a quest right away anyway. Her goal was the training ground.

She wanted to keep testing the weapon summoning. If people wanted to stare, then let them. She needed to focus.

But no matter how much she tried to make her mental image even clearer, attempting to summon a rifle just gave her a bow. And if she tried a pistol, she got a mini crossbow. If only she was able to summon two, then she could be like one of her favourite anime characters, but one rod meant one weapon. She had never been able to summon a weapon that was completely detached and independent from the rod. Unless the magical difference in this world let her overcome that obstacle, she did have the option of just bringing an additional normal weapon. Using a regular metal sword alongside her magic sword would be possible, assuming it could withstand her strength. Or buying a regular mini crossbow to have as her second. She could probably still load it with magic bolts, so ammunition wouldn’t be an issue.

Other weapons seemed to show up just fine though. An axe, a mace, a spear, a scythe, a whip, and of course a sword. They looked just like she was imagining them. Did the fact that she was able to make her sword shaped like a katana mean that somewhere in this world someone actually made swords like that? Or was there a little leeway in going outside what existed in this world? Perhaps that meant that eventually she would be able to force a rifle into existence, but there was also the possibility that God was specifically restricting her from doing that. A differently shaped sword was one thing, but a weapon that didn’t exist and could drastically change the power balance of the world might simply be out of the question.

She turned her attention to firing the bow instead. Her shots all landed fairly close to the mark, and the grouping wasn’t bad, so there was an amount of auto-aim that her powers provided. It was not exactly marksman accuracy, but it was decent. Going to the shooting range and learning proper handling had improved her ability to aim a firearm accurately by a considerable amount.

_ Where is the sight on a bow, though? Where am I supposed to look to aim it? _

As she was thinking that, a ring formed on the side of the bow, with a little pin sticking from each cardinal direction to form a crosshair.

_ It’s responding to my thoughts? I guess that makes sense. I just can’t recall it happening because of an idle thought rather than a conscious effort before. _

Using the newly added sight her grouping got a lot tighter, and it didn’t take her long to get used enough to the flight of the arrows to start landing a few bullseyes. She had toned down the strength of the arrows so they wouldn’t accidentally obliterate the targets, since the goal was to improve her aim, not cause as much damage as she could.

_ This is just a static target though. And arrows fly slower than bullets. Even my magic arrows don’t seem to exceed the flight speed of regular ones as far as I can tell. Can’t expect to become an expert in less than an hour, I suppose. _

She should probably get more distance next. If this behaved like a real bow, then the arrows would still drop during flight way faster than a bullet, so she’d need to figure out where to aim at a longer range to still hit where she wanted to.

“Oy, Miss Marit!”

“Huh?” Someone was shouting at her across the training ground, so she turned to see someone familiar walking towards her. “Oh, Miss Robyn! You’re back!”

“Came back yesterday actually, but what’s this? I thought ya used a sword? Are ya gonna give Dunn a run for his money next?”

“Ah, no… I mainly use it as a sword, but this thing-” The bow vanished, and she twirled the rod around a little. “-can turn into any weapon I want.”  _ Why am I showing off? _

“Ooo. I’d ask ya to show me more, but now’s not really the time. I’m actually here to fetch ya so we can talk about a job, and I don’t wanna keep the others waiting.”

“A job?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooo, what could this mysterious job be?
> 
> Funnily enough, going over what I'd written about laundry here reminded me that I was supposed to do some of my own today.


	11. Lakeside Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit gets invited to join a monster hunting quest, and rides with Jonas's party alongside the lake to the south.

“So you’re leaving again already?”

“With a party like ours going out for more serious quests is the only real option. We pretty much exclusively do intermediate quests,” Jonas explained.

Marit had sat down with Robyn, Jonas, Dunn, and Eri at one of the tables in the guild itself.

“Sometimes we will take a short break, and maybe do some smaller quests on our own or in pairs, but we try to focus on bigger jobs.”

“Jonas has already hit intermediate rank, Dunn and Eri aren’t far behind, and I’m doing my best to catch up,” Robyn said. “So we need quests with more challenge, and more reward.”

“Not that all of them are equally challenging.” Dunn chimed in with a rare sentence.

“Quite.” Jonas placed a poster on the table. “Just because two quests are the same rank doesn't mean they’re necessarily the same difficulty. Other factors play in too, like what party size it’s intended for, what skills they’re looking for, how far away it is, and the reward offered. Which brings us to our current prospect.”

Marit looked at the poster. “Monster hunting?”

“Aye. A Crystalback. A relatively small one, which is why it’s still intermediate, but it’s made its home in a very inconvenient location.”

“A Crystalback?” Marit couldn’t remember if she had seen that entry in the bestiary.

“It’s like a large tortoise.” Eri took over explaining. “But its shell is made entirely of crystal. And it’s fiercely territorial.”

“Which usually means they keep to themselves, but this one decided its territory includes a portion of the southern main road. It’s already attacked several travellers, wagons, and carriages that were simply trying to move through the area. Unfortunately with some casualties.” Robin grimaced. “The thing is faster than it looks, so people get caught unaware.”

“It’s probably a youngling that has just set out to make a home of its own, and unfortunately the home it chose is causing major havoc.” They all sounded like they’d done their research.

“It’s an urgent quest, which means the reward is higher than usual, so we want to snag it before anyone else manages to organise a party. And we want you to join us, Miss Marit,” Jonas said.

Marit just stared at him. “Me?”

“It was my idea after that thrashing ya gave me,” Robyn said. “But the others weren’t hard to convince.”

“Apparently you’ve been busy while we’ve been away.” Jonas smiled. “The guild was buzzing yesterday about how you’d come back from the forest with two dead Durkian Cobras, each felled with a single blow.”

“They’re exaggerating.” Marit could feel a blush creeping into her cheeks. “I had help.”  _ And how would they know I killed them in one hit? The first one was technically two if you include the shield bash. _

“Even so, going two on two with those cobras, and coming out of it victorious and unharmed is no mean feat.”

Tanja had been harmed, but they’d taken care of that before heading back.

“I went looking for ya yesterday after hearing the story, but couldn’t find ya anywhere. I wanted to hear the whole tale.” Robyn sounded genuinely interested. “We’re lucky ya were here today when we learned about the quest.”

“Yeah, I’ve had some business to take care of, so I’ve been running around all over,” Marit said. It was probably for the best Robyn hadn’t found her the day before, since her mental energy had been all but spent. “But are you all really sure about this? I’m still very new to both this area, and this job.”

“Yup.”

“Yes.”

“Mhm.”

“We already reached a consensus before asking. So what do you say?”

They sounded so earnest. While Marit was worried she’d hold them back, hearing that made her feel a little happy. It didn’t take her long to make a decision.

“Alright, Mister Jonas. I’ll join you.” She had been thinking that she wanted to get out more, even if she hadn’t expected something like this to be her next outing. It was exciting to think she’d get to see her first monster, even if she was still a little unclear on what separated a monster from an animal in this world. The cobras had seemed monstrous enough even though they were apparently still considered animals.

“Excellent!” Jonas grinned wide. “Let’s go register that we’re all accepting the quest, and then head out right away. Or at least as soon as we’ve gotten our supplies in order. We’ve got a ways to go.”

“Uh… how far is ‘a ways’?” Maybe she should have asked that before saying yes.

“About a day and a half on horseback. So the plan is to make camp outside of its territory on the second night, and fight it the next morning.”

“I’ll do a bit of scouting when we arrive if there’s still daylight,” Dunn said.

Marit suddenly felt nervous. “Horseback…?”

“Do ya not know how to ride a horse, Miss Marit?”

“Urk…” Robyn hit the nail on the head. “I haven’t ridden one since I was a kid…” And she had her doubts that riding a horse was like riding a bicycle in terms of remembering how to do it.

“Really?” Jonas looked a little surprised. “Well, we’ll just ask for one of the rental horses to be strong enough for two people.”

“If ya ride with me or Eri it’ll probably be easiest. Less total weight.” Robyn winked. 

_ Maybe I was too hasty to accept, but I’m not going to back out now. I’m sure it will be fine. Have I ever camped outside without a tent, though? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. Unless you count my very first night in this world. _

* * *

It took them about an hour to get everything ready, so it was past noon by the time they were renting the horses. Half past according to her shiny new watch. Marit had gone off to get some camping gear, and sadly hadn’t found a tent. The best she had been able to do was get some tarp, some poles to hold it up, and weights to hold down the edges in case they needed a makeshift shelter. When she had more time she’d look around for a proper tent to have for the future. Once everyone had finished doing whatever they needed to, they met up by the rental stable. Maybe they already had a tent. She was allowed to hope.

She ended up sharing a horse with Robyn. The awkward part was not really being sure where to put her hands. The height difference didn’t make it easier. She also had to resist the temptation to lean her head on top of Robyn’s. That would probably just come across as creepy.

_ What is wrong with me? It’s as if being given a younger body has made me more hormonal again. I do remember being more easily excited in those days. _

They wanted to keep a decent pace with the horses, so it was a bit too noisy to talk much unless you wanted to shout. So all she could really do was watch the landscape move by, and listen to the clippety-clop of hooves.

The road out of Crimonia’s western side split into three directions about a hundred metres out from the gate. If you continued straight west you headed into the forest, and beyond. There was mostly farmland in that direction, with small villages dotted along the road.

The path north was the route to the capital. The western road would also get you there eventually if you turned at the right point, but north was the fastest, most direct way. The capital city Hartmund lay in the middle of the northern section of the kingdom, rather than the exact middle of the whole nation.

Heading south took you to the lake that the river Marit had come across eventually led to, and where she would have eventually ended up if she had decided to go downstream. It was apparently fairly big, so she was looking forward to seeing it. There were two villages along the lakeside, and they would be passing through one of them the next day. They could have probably gotten there that same day, but either they would have needed to get going earlier, or push the horses harder than they really wanted to. The next village was past their target. Eventually the road led to the next big city before the border to the southern neighbour.

They reached the tip of the lakeside just as it was starting to get dark, and they decided to find a camp spot. To Marit’s delight they actually had a tent, or something close to it. It didn’t have a zipper door like she was used to back home, but it provided shelter better than her makeshift idea. When set up it honestly more resembled a lean-to made of heavy cloth, with one of the sides open, but it had a flap you could cover the opening with if needed. Which they probably didn’t. It had started raining the previous evening, and rained overnight, so most of the clouds had been gone by morning. It had been partly overcast the whole time they’d been riding. About half the time had been spent in sunshine, half in shade, and it didn’t look like there was any danger of rain that night.

Even better Eri had an ointment to ease her soreness from riding.

Once everything was set up, and the fire was crackling, they could start making dinner. A hearty soup. And now that they had the time to spare, the others wanted to hear more about the trip to the forest, and the cobras. She tried to tell the tale as best she could.

“So you were like a shining knight.” Jonas grinned at her, and Marit couldn’t think of any response except to blush. Robyn patted her on the back.

“I’m curious to see this magic form of yours,” Eri said. “It sounds fascinating.”

_ Oh, that’s right. Only Robyn has seen it yet. _ “Well, I hope I’ll live up to expectations.”

“Oh, I’m sure ya will.” Robyn’s confidence just made Marit want to blush harder.

“What about you all? What were you out doing?” Marit asked. Changing the topic felt like a good call.

“More bandits. Nothing exciting.” Dunn certainly sounded anything but excited.

“The poster had been misleading, or to be fair, the ones who posted it didn’t really know what was going on. It spoke of a village plagued by ghouls who came at night to drag people away. But when we arrived we quickly discovered it was just bandits who were disguising their actions to seem like monster raids. At least we found several of their victims still alive.” Jonas’s tone was grim.

“Their actions were certainly ghoulish.” Eri sounded glum as well.

The conversation died down after that, but it was probably best to call an early night anyway, so they’d get an early start the next day. They decided on who was one guard duty without any sort of argument, as if the team already had a system for it. Eri would take the first half of the night, and Dunn the second. Presumably that meant Jonas and Robyn were the next night. It didn’t seem like Marit was considered for the part at all. They probably (and correctly) assumed that she wasn’t used to such things, and might not do very well.

She got into her newly acquired bedroll, and did her best to sleep. A sleeping bag would have probably been more comfortable, but possibly too warm.

* * *

The next day they got up with the sun, which Marit now knew was shortly before six. A bit earlier than she was used to getting up. Considering the weather and temperature since she had arrived, it felt pretty safe to assume that it was sometime in or near the middle of summer. A stark contrast to the early winter she’d left behind. She wasn’t going to attempt to calculate any longitude or latitude based on that, though. She didn’t even have an idea how big this planet was in the first place.

Seeing the two moons was interesting. The cloud cover was almost completely gone that morning, so the entire sky was visible from their little campsite, and the moons hadn’t gone down yet. There weren't a lot of nearby hills or mountains to obstruct the view either. She had been thoroughly looking around to see if there were more, but the two she had spotted on her first night in the inn seemed to be it.

_ How does that affect tidal forces? I can’t really tell how close they are, and I have no idea how to find out, but maybe only one of them is large enough to exert that kind of pull. Otherwise the tidal tables for this world might look quite interesting. _

Even though Eri’s ointment had worked a treat, she could feel a slight hesitation at placing her buttocks back on that horse. If worse came to worst, maybe she could attempt healing magic on her own bottom. The mental image of putting a bit of healing potion on a cloth, and rubbing a sore spot on the body decided to show up for her entertainment.

They passed some people going the other way as they rode along, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful until they reached the village after about four hours. If they’d left in the morning the day before, they could have probably made it by sundown. 

Her main point of interest during the ride was the lake itself. It seemed as large as she had been told, and the further they rode, the wider it got. It was hard to see all the way to the other side. She had only spotted one river leading into it, meaning the one from the forest and the one from the city had to join up somewhere along the way. Unless one of them was just out of sight. There was hardly any wind that day, so the water looked flat and still. She idly wondered how deep it went. And what might be down in those depths. It was tempting to jump right in. At the very least she’d love a closer look at it.

They decided to take a quick lunch break when they reached the village, and that was where Marit encountered fish for the first time since arriving in this world. She hadn’t really thought about it until then, but she hadn’t noticed anywhere serving fish in Durkandel. It made sense that a lakeside village would have fish, though. They had a decent dock, with several boats, but it was probably not enough to make an industry of it. She would be surprised if the village had more than 200 residents, children and elderly included. If they were able to sell any fish, it couldn’t be a lot.

She wasn’t going to turn down some fried trout though. It tasted like trout, at least. She didn’t bother asking what name they called it by.

The travel onwards was even less eventful than the day before. There had been guards on the far side of the village warning them about the monster on the road further south, and they’d had to show their cards to assure them they were on the way to deal with the issue. So while there had been a few travellers and wagons they’d passed between Durkandel and the village, the road beyond was deserted. Word of the monster had spread enough that no one so much as tried sneaking past it until it got cleared.

Before they set up camp for the night, Dunn went ahead to scout so they were sure they set up outside of the Crystalback’s territory. There was still enough daylight to get that sorted, and it would be disastrous should it happen upon them during the night.

They discussed a few things about strategy and such for the following day, but there wasn’t much conversation beyond that. The whole party was more interested in checking their gear, and probably mentally preparing themselves. Marit didn’t really have a lot to check, so her main task was steeling herself for battle. She really hoped she wouldn’t hold them back. After everyone was satisfied, they had a late dinner, and turned in for the night. As Marit had expected, Robyn took the early guard, and Jonas was going to relieve her in the middle of the night.

_ They’re really not taking me into account at all. Which is fair, but I kinda feel like I should volunteer to take a shift. I can bring it up on the way back. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter of a chapter this time, because the next one didn't really have a good place to split things up, and I didn't want to make it too long altogether.
> 
> We are approaching the end of my draft so far. I still have a fair amount of words in the document, but a lot of them are disorganised, and not ready to be put into action, so to speak. I have slowly started to write more again, but at maybe a hundred or so words per day, it's not exactly the blazing speed I had at the start. It's better than nothing. With spring around the corner, maybe my muse will wake up a bit more.


	12. The Crystalback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marit and the others face off against the Crystalback.

“So that’s it?”

“Yup.”

They had found a ridge to observe the monster from, after Marit had thought to transform somewhere the creature wouldn’t spot the flash of light. From what they could see it was simply plodding along with no apparent hurry. It looked like it was coming from the waterside, and perhaps the access to freshwater was part of why it had decided this was going to be its home. She wasn’t sure what it actually ate.

The resemblance to a tortoise was clear enough, but the crystal that made up its shell didn’t look anywhere near as smooth as a tortoise shell. The back was full of large, jagged, uneven spikes, as if the crystal wasn’t growing at an even rate, or maybe shot up in random bursts. Only around the base of the creature itself did the crystalline structure seem smooth and fitting. 

“Doesn’t it seem just a wee bit bigger than the poster described it?” Robyn asked.

“It could have had a recent growth spurt,” Eri suggested.

“Or they didn’t get a good enough look at it before making the poster,” was Jonas’s thought.

_ I hope they didn’t deliberately undersell its size to try to get away with paying less for it. Maybe I’m just being too cynical. _

“If it did just have a growth spurt, then finding the shed crystal plates would be quite the bonus,” Dunn pointed out. “We are still taking it on, yeah?” Seemed like he got more verbal while working.

“Of course.” Jonas smiled. “We have a bonus member after all. So even if it’s a little bigger, so are we. And it still seems small enough that I don’t think we have to worry about magic attacks.”

According to what they knew, a Crystalback gradually absorbed magic energy from the surrounding air as it grew, which eventually manifested in it being able to use certain special abilities. Mostly earth-type magic, but the really big and old ones got some very nasty stuff. Their hope was that this one was too young to have developed any of that yet. If it had, things would get a lot more complicated.

“There’s really not a lot for me to shoot at here…” Dunn scratched at his ear.

They had been discussing strategy the night before, and while eating breakfast. And they might need a quick revision after actually seeing the thing. Jonas took the lead.

“I’d say focus on the exposed spots, Dunn. Feel free to try any piercing arrow techniques on the shell, but I wouldn’t hold my hopes up. I’ve heard the crystal is extremely durable. The head is probably our best bet, but if we can injure or disable a leg that would help us out. Even if the skin is likely quite thick, it won’t be anywhere near as bad as the shell itself.”

They all nodded.

“Eri, try to find any sort of weaknesses. They say the shell is resistant to magic, but do what you can.”

“Got it.”

“You still want to try smashing it, Miss Marit?”

“It is possible my strength is not enough, but I want to at least make the attempt.” She was the only one with any blunt weapon capability, so she wanted to see what a sledgehammer swung with magical girl strength would achieve.

“Understood. If you can’t, then join the assault on the head with ranged attacks, or help Robyn strike at the legs. I’ve heard the thing has a mean bite, so I don’t want anyone but me too close to it. Everyone ready?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Aye.”

“Yup.”

“Good.”

They sprang into action. Jonas led the charge, since it would be ideal for the Crystalback to spot him first. Robyn and Marit were following in his wake, intending to spread out to each side of the monster once Jonas had its attention, while Dunn and Eri only intended to get close enough to be in attack range.

This would be the first time she’d get to see how the adventurers of this world fought. She had noticed that Eri had cast something on Jonas before they started. It had made his body glow for a moment, and he had thanked Eri for it, but Marit wasn’t sure what it could have been.

_ Some sort of buff? Strengthening magic is a staple of video and tabletop games, so I shouldn’t be surprised something like that exists here. I do wish I knew what she cast, but I guess they don’t have to state it out loud. Maybe that’s for the best. _

When the Crystalback spotted them, it turned on them immediately. It was like you could feel the anger emanating from it as soon it saw them.

_ Is that what they mean by fiercely territorial? _

Marit and Robyn darted out to the sides, while Jonas banged his shield. A red glow appeared on it for a moment.

_ Some sort of taunt? _

The monster certainly didn’t seem to be paying any attention to anything except Jonas, and charged right at him.

_ Yikes. It really is faster than it looks. I can’t imagine it turning very well though. Probably more like a crocodile or alligator where it can go very fast in a straight line, with little ability to change direction. _

It crashed headfirst into the shield which pushed Jonas back a bit, but somehow he wasn’t knocked over.

_ I guess he has earned his rank. He didn’t even look particularly nervous. _

With the monster standing still for the moment, it was time to go on the offensive. The beast was too big for her to see what Robyn was doing on the other side, but she changed her weapon to a sledgehammer, and went in for a strike. Or she tried. For some reason it turned into a large mace instead.

_ No, that’s not what I want. Sledgehammer. Hammer! _

The weapon reformed into a warhammer.

_ That’s the closest you’re giving me? Oh well, maybe it’s more suited for the job anyway. _

She kicked off of the ground, and did a mid-air spin to deliver a full-body blow against the shell. Which kinda just bounced off.

_ What? _

She tried a couple more swings, but it was like the force of them was absorbed or negated somehow. Even if she wasn’t strong enough to crack the shell, she should have been feeling more of an impact. It should smash.

_ This isn’t right. _

And then it came to her what Jonas had said earlier. The shell was resistant to magic. In fact, she could see the bolts of fire, ice, and… something green that Eri launched at the creature, and they seemed to have similarly little effect. It just hadn’t occurred to Marit that it would apply to her magical weapons as well. Maybe she should have brought a real hammer just in case, but it was possible the handle would have snapped if swung with her strength.

_ It was worth a shot. If only the monsters back home had thought to use a strategy like this. Actually, wasn’t there one that did? We still defeated it somehow, but I don’t remember how. _

Time to change tactics. Her weapon changed to a spear, and she stabbed at the hind leg. The tip bit into it, but it didn’t cause much of a reaction. The skin had to be quite thick. Made sense considering how much weight these legs had to carry.

If she widened the blade, and kept stabbing and slashing at it, she would probably eventually get through. It was oozing a little blood already, so it seemed to be working. But the thing had started moving around, perhaps feeling that something was happening to its leg, and whatever Robyn was doing on the other side. It would be hard to keep striking at the same spot. Perhaps it would be better to pull back, and join Dunn in firing arrows at the head. She hadn’t actually tried using any attack magic yet, not even in training, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to experiment with that in the middle of high-stakes combat. It probably wouldn’t fare much better than Eri’s anyway, especially when her weapon had had so little impact.

_ I should find some way to practice my magic, but no sense in worrying about it right now. _

She leaped to somewhere with a better angle, changed her weapon to the same bow-shape she’d been using in the training ground, and started lining up her shots. Blue arrows flew towards the monster’s head, but the skin there looked pretty tough too. Especially the crown encasing the skull seemed as hard as rock. Even when she tried to pour more magic power into the arrows they didn’t seem to be penetrating far. Maybe the shell was absorbing some of the magic via proximity. It was probably best to try to find softer spots to aim for. She noticed several arrows stuck in one of the front legs, but they didn’t seem to have burrowed very deep either. Whether Dunn had tried a few shots, then given up, or was alternating between targets she couldn’t say.

Jonas was standing valiantly against the irate creature. She would occasionally see his body or his shield exhibit a brief glow. Maybe that was the indication of him using skills or something to make sure the Crystalback didn’t change its attention over to someone else. Maybe Eri was casting more spells on him as well. He was stuck on the defensive though, mostly hunkering behind the shield, and trying to avoid the monster snapping it away from him. He managed to get the occasional sword swing in, but it seemed like his focus was on egging the creature on. Which was maybe working a little too well, because it was so pissed off you could feel the rage pulsing from it. If it was human you’d expect a forehead vein to be throbbing. It was trying everything it could think of to get at the infuriating man in front of it.

Meanwhile Marit was definitely not having any more luck with her shots than Dunn. Aiming at a constantly moving target while trying to find its softer spots was definitely harder than a static bullseye target. Even her powers couldn’t compensate for the level of training a proper ranger had. Maybe she should switch back to melee, and go for the legs again. It was going to be a drawn-out battle regardless.

One of her arrows managed to dig into the creature’s neck, and either that was the tipping point, or it had had enough regardless, because it suddenly withdrew its head into the shell. Then it pushed itself up into the air, and took a few steps forwards on its hind legs as the body came crashing back down.

_ It intends to crush him! _

It was looming over Jonas as if he was caught in its shadow. Marit dug her foot into the ground, and kicked off. She closed the distance in an instant, and raised her hands to catch the enraged tortoise. A shockwave flew out around them from the force of the impact.

_ Gods, how many tons is this thing? _

She could feel it pressing her down into the ground.

“Miss Marit?!”

“I’m okay! Are you-” She looked behind herself, and saw that Jonas had already cleared well out of the way of where the Crystalback was going to land.

_ Oh. Of course he was going to get out of the way. He’s an experienced adventurer. I just acted on instinct. _

The fury of the creature she was just barely holding up felt as heavy as its body. 

_ Now what? Do I try to push it up enough to zip back out from under it? _

If she could push it onto its back that would be ideal, but that was a tall ask. Even getting enough lift to buy the time to get out would be tricky. Her lack of forethought had gotten her into a sticky situation. And it was unlikely the others could do much to get her out of it. 

_ What do I do… Oh. I remember now. The way we solved fighting that magic-absorbing monster was that Nina had just beat the shit out of it. _

Their fearless leader had exceptional abilities with controlling the flow of magic, but adding magical effects to her punches didn’t give any extra power against something that just absorbed said magic on impact. So instead she had channelled the magic into herself, boosting her own physical power, and had started smashing.

_ I’m not Nina, but I suppose I can try taking a page out of her book. _

Marit let the magic flow inwards, and felt it powering her up. It wasn’t an entirely risk-free technique. Human bodies weren’t meant to handle this amount of stress. The transformation magic protected them, but it had its limits. She well remembered the lecture the Council had given them after Nina pulled that stunt, and how they’d warned the rest of them against trying the same.

_ But I only need it for a moment. _

She gave the Crystalback a light push, enough to give her the second or two she needed to crouch down, and deliver an uppercut right into its chest. The crystal cracked, and shattered as the creature was launched into the air, arced backwards, and slammed crystal-first back into the ground. The recoil from the hit knocked her right on her back.

_ Ow. I don’t think I broke anything in my hand, but... ow. _

“Eri! Robyn! To me!”

She saw Jonas run past her towards the Crystalback, and pushed herself up on her elbows to see Robyn and Eri run up to join him.

“Eri, prep Robyn for launch! Robyn, jump on when you’re ready!”

“Aye aye!”

Jonas crouched down, and held his shield up. Eri waved her staff around, and made some hand gestures. Robyn glowed twice, and her weapon once. Then she leaped onto the shield, got catapulted into the air, and swung her sword around to plunge it directly into the thrashing monster. Marit couldn’t quite see the landing from her position, but a few moments later the thrashing stopped.

Everything went quiet for a minute, then Robyn hopped down from the flipped creature, and everyone started putting their weapons away. Jonas walked over.

“That was reckless, Miss Marit,” he said as he offered her a hand up.

“I’ve been told that before.” She accepted the hand, but with the one she hadn’t used to punch. “I wasn’t really thinking, just reacting.” 

“Still, maybe my shining knight comment wasn’t too far off the mark.” Jonas teased her.

“That was really cool. The way the thing just went flying. Bam! What a punch!” Robyn grinned. “Though I would prefer if ya didn’t attempt to give me a heart attack first.” 

“If we immediately lost the newbie the first time we brought her along, it would look bad on us, you know.” Dunn sounded a little amused.

“How’s your hand?” Eri asked.

Marit gingerly held it up. “I don’t think anything’s broken, at least.”

Eri put her hands around it, causing Marit to flinch. “I think you’re right, but I’ll give you a quick heal anyway.” A soothing sensation spread out from where Eri touched her.

“At least it turned out okay,” Jonas said. “That would have been a long battle, so you saved us a lot of time by flipping the Crystalback onto its… back.”

“Yeah…” Marit looked at the creature again. “What exactly did you do when you launched Miss Robyn?”

“I cast some spells on her,” Eri said. “Greater Agility to let her control her movements better, Eye For Weakness to let her see where the creature’s heart is, and Piercing Enhancement on the sword to make sure it found its mark.”

“And then I just whoosh into the air! And score a perfect landing!” Robyn threw her hands up.

“At my level the Greater enhancement spells don’t last for very long, but it’s enough to do something like this.” Eri smiled, and let go of Marit’s hand. It felt a lot better.

“So you’ve done that before?”

“We know how to exploit a chance when we see one.” Jonas had certainly acted quickly and decisively. “Can’t say I’ve heard of anything like what you just did though, Miss Marit. I think I understand how you made it so far on your own.”

_ I didn’t have to fight anything before I ran into you all, though. Except my own despair, I suppose. _

“This isn’t just an outfit, is it?” Eri had gone from caretaker mode to curiosity mode as she started examining Marit. “I can see the magic wrapped around you. Hugging you. And how it filled you when you were holding the Crystalback. It’s like… if I was to assume magic has a will, I almost want to say it seems like it likes you.”

“Likes me?” That was an odd way of thinking about it.

“How does it work?” Eri’s eyes were practically sparkling.

“Um… the magic rod is the catalyst…” Honestly it was hard to describe in any great detail, since she didn’t really know that much herself. It worked, that had always been the important thing. ‘How’ hadn’t been a big consideration.

“Can I try it?”

Jonas patted Eri on the shoulder. “We should deal with the body now. There’s time to play around later.”

“Oh… right. Of course.” Eri headed over towards the far side of the Crystalback, where its head would now be.

Dunn came back from wherever he had gone off to after the kill was confirmed. “I didn’t see any shed plates in the vicinity.”

“It’s possible the creature ate them itself, assuming it had shed any at all. Let’s start collecting any decently sized shards that Miss Marit broke off while Eri drains the blood.” Jonas crouched down, and started putting crystals into his bag, with Robyn and Dunn following suit. 

Marit joined them. “The blood?”

“Yes. We did our research on what parts of a Crystalback are truly worth something. Monster blood in general is highly coveted by alchemists, and is best when harvested fresh.” Marit remembered Sletta telling them much the same as what Jonas was saying. “We don’t have a lot of the flasks you need to keep it fresh, but three should be enough to get a good price. We’d need something the size of a water tower if we wanted all the blood this thing carries, I think.” He chuckled.

“Apparently the meat isn’t worth much,” Robyn continued. “It’s not toxic, but they say it tastes foul. A few people consider it an acquired taste, but we probably won’t make much off of that. And the hide is almost too thick to do anything with, but there are always people willing to try. The various organs have decent value, especially the magic processing one. But the real prize is the crystal.”

“So you don’t have to hand the monster over for the quest?”

“No.” Jonas shook his head. “The quest was to clear the road. It didn’t specify delivering the Crystalback, so if we had managed to chase it off that would have counted, though we’d have to wait for someone to verify it was gone. Having the corpse to show for our efforts makes it much easier. When we get back to Firna we can let them know to send a courier down south, and inform the next village that the road is open again.”

“Then when we get back to the city, we can get them to butcher and harvest the body for us. Which I doubt will be cheap considering the size of it. Maybe they’ll give us a discount since Miss Marit already cracked the shell?”

“I wouldn’t count on it, Dunn.”

“Okay, I’m all done!” Eri called out to them as she walked back into sight.

“Excellent.” Jonas stood back up. “Help me with the bag, Dunn?”

“Sure.”

Jonas took out a blue bag.

“What’s that?” Marit asked Robyn.

“We bought a special cold storage bag of holding, big enough to hold this thing, and keep it fresh until we get back. If it really works, it’s probably a sound investment for future jobs as well.”

_ So they don’t have bags that put the items inside in stasis? Is my bag the only one that does so, or is it just a super rare feature? _

It looked bigger than any other bag of holding she’d seen so far. It was almost more of a sack. Marit wondered for a moment if she should help them shove the body inside, but the two of them just held it open close to the dead Crystalback, and the entire body got sucked inside. Leaving only the imprint it had made on the ground.

_ Oh. I guess it makes sense that you don’t have to actually lift everything into the bag yourself. That would make things virtually impossible for people without super-strength. _

“That should be it. Now can I try?” Eri expressed a childlike wonder that was hard to turn down.

Marit didn’t have to guess at what she meant. “Alright…” She dropped the transformation, and handed the rod over to Eri. “But I think it only works for me, so please don’t get your hopes up too much.”

Eri stared at the rod for a minute as if transfixed, carefully turning it to look at the intricate blue patterns on the white base, and then went: “Um… how do you make it work?”

“I visualise the transformation happening, and it responds to me. If it works, you should feel the magic in the rod waking up.” In all honesty Marit was curious if it could work for anyone else, considering she had been specifically chosen. She had at times wondered what the Council did when they chose the next magical girls. What it was like when they handed the rods down to their successors. But since they had given her the very rod she had used during her time, maybe they made new rods every time. Which also implied they had a rather large collection of magical girl rods sitting somewhere.

She was also a little afraid of it working. That would mean she wasn’t special after all. That perhaps it would prefer someone else.

“It’s not doing anything…” Eri sounded disappointed, while Marit felt relieved. Still… 

“When I started out I used a special phrase to trigger the transformation.” Even though it made her nervous, part of her felt like she needed to let Eri have an honest try. It was possible she was pushing her luck. If magic truly had a will, was it going to feel offended at being tested like this? She leaned close, and whispered to Eri.

With determination Eri raised the rod towards the sky, as if she expected to get struck by lightning or something. “Waves of blue, steer me true!”

_ Yup, that’s definitely embarrassing for an adult to say out loud. She’s so earnest it’s kinda cute, though. _

“... it’s still not doing anything…” 

“I’m sorry.”  _ And kinda not sorry.  _

Eri handed the rod back with a disheartened look. “To be honest I expected this result, but I was still hoping… does it do anything besides make you really strong and fast?”

“Well, you saw the weapon summoning, and I can also cast spells. Oh, and jump really high, I guess.”

“How high?”

… 

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

_ I can actually see a lot of the lake from up here. It’s quite big, indeed. And I have a cute girl in my arms. Who is screaming quite loudly. _

They touched back down, and she let the trembling mage get her feet on solid ground again.

“What did you think?”

“That’s the most terrifying experience I’ve had in my entire life. Except maybe the time I spilled ink on Master’s tome. Yet I almost want to have another go…”

“Oh?”

“I said almost! Almost!”

Marit giggled. “Anyone else want to try? Miss Robyn?”

“No way.” Robyn took a step back. “I’m perfectly fine on the ground. People aren’t meant to go that high.”

“I’d like to.” To Marit’s surprise, Dunn raised his hand.

So up they went, and back down they came.

“You were very calm, Mister Dunn.”

“I can assure you I was screaming on the inside.” It was hard to tell if he was joking or not, but he was maybe looking a little pale. “It seems useful for long-range recon, though I imagine you’re quite visible even from a distance. If you had a way to hide yourself you could scope out anything.” Somehow she was not surprised that was how he was judging it. He wasn’t wrong though, since that was how she had spotted the river that had led her to the road when she had first arrived.

“I wonder…” Jonas was rubbing his chin. “You seemed to get some pretty good speed going up. If you could use that to go in a direction other than straight up, you might be able to travel faster than a horse.”

Marit was certain she could run faster than a horse too, but Jonas’s train of thought wasn’t wrong. That was the main way she and the others had gotten around. They hadn’t really used it for long-distance travel since the Council would transport them to where they needed to go, but it was useful for closing the distance to enemies, or getting out of the way of attacks. But in this world it might make exploring the world a more viable option. 

“What spells can you cast?” Eri seemed to have mostly recovered.

“Well… I know healing, and attack magic…” In theory she could cast anything she could imagine, but she had a feeling it wasn’t that easy in practice. She could probably manage a fireball, and stuff like that, but she did have more special ones.

She got everyone to stand clear, and raised her hand.  _ Judgement bolt. _ A spear of crackling blue energy materialised, which she gripped, and hurled at a rock roughly 50 metres away. It exploded into pebbles. 

“Whoa!”

Spells that resembled weapons, such as a javelin, were the kinds of things she used to come up with. It was easier to visualise. The name was corny, but she had thought it sounded cool at the time.

“Spell-casting was never my specialty, so I’m not good about remembering to use it. We had other team members better suited for it. It probably wouldn’t have done much good against the Crystalback anyway.”

“Team members? You used to be in a party, Miss Marit?” Jonas sounded intrigued.

“Uh…” She had said that without thinking. “Oh, yeah. There were five of us. All chosen to battle evil. We had different things we were good at, and complemented each other well.”

“I can scarcely imagine what kind of evil would require five of you to battle…“

“Heh.”  _ Maybe that’s for the best. Though looking through the bestiary it seems like this world has its own share of terrifying monsters. _

“What happened to the others?” Robyn asked.

“Hopefully nothing. I hope they’re still safe. But I don’t think I’ll ever get to see them again…”

“Oh…”

They wrapped things up, and started the journey back. It was still early enough that they made it back to the village by the end of the day, where they presented the Crystalback’s body as proof that the road was safe again. A courier would get sent south with the news the next morning. Meanwhile the group were offered a free night at the inn, which they accepted. A bed was preferable to a bedroll, and they could dine at the tavern rather than cook for themselves.

Marit decided to try the crayfish. Honestly she preferred saltwater crustaceans, which her family usually only had on special occasions. But it still felt a little nostalgic.

Before they fell asleep, Marit decided she would actually sell one of her canteens to Eri for cheap. She had been so disappointed about the transformation not working for her, so Marit wanted to give her something. 

“You’re sure?” Eri was staring wide-eyed at it.

“Hey, I said I would think about it, and now I have.”

“Thank you so much!” Her eyes sparkled as she examined it.

Marit wasn’t entirely certain what the mage intended to do with it besides storing water, but it was cute to see her so excited. 

They got an early start the next day, and were able to reach Durkandel before nightfall, but the adventurers’ guild was closed for the day, and so was the butchering workshop. So they decided to do the celebration before anything else. Things had been a little muted on the way back, so it was time to let loose. Though maybe not too much, considering that riding a horse for the whole day had left Marit feeling a bit saddlesore even after using more of Eri’s ointment. She wondered whether healing magic worked on stuff like that. It might be worth testing before going to sleep.

Partway through their celebratory feast, Robyn banged on the table a couple of times to get everyone’s attention.

“Ahem! So, first off. Good work, everyone!” She was on her second mug of ale, but seemed to be holding together reasonably well. The others cheered.

_ Are they always this rowdy after a quest? I guess it feels good to get it out of your system when you’re back somewhere safe. _

“Also, I have a suggestion.” Robyn looked right at Marit. “With what we just went through together, isn’t it about time we dropped the Misses and Misters? What do ya say, Marit?”

Marit blinked, then smiled. “I’d like that. Robyn.” Another round of cheers.

In all honesty she had found the practice a little odd to begin with. She wasn’t used to speaking so formally, but she had picked up on it quickly in order to not seem rude, or stand out any further. It had become second nature fairly quickly.

After they had eaten their fill, and then some, everyone stumbled off to their respective sleeping places. Marit wasn’t much of a drinker, but she had decided to have one beer for the occasion. It was her first monster hunt, after all. One was probably fine. However it was enough to make her feel rather woozy as she headed back to the inn. She was a bit of a lightweight. Maybel was kind enough to give her the same room she’d had before she left, since it wasn’t occupied, so at least she had no trouble finding her way there. After getting her clothes off, and getting into bed, she fell asleep almost immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, a slightly longer chapter this time.
> 
> Honestly, a few parts of it still feel a little thin to me, but I've decided to not worry so much about filling every blank, and more about writing the parts I enjoy. Maybe things will get expanded more in a future draft, or maybe they're fine as they are.


End file.
